Mother of Us All
by MegaSilver
Summary: Character vignettes of the Space Rangers and their old foes post-"Countdown to Destruction," telling of their discovery of adult life - and Rita's and Zedd's discovery of good. Eventual Andros/Ashley, Zhane/Karone, Zedd/Rita. Cameos by older Rangers.
1. Prologue

_**Disclaimer:**__ Saban Brands owns _Power Rangers_ and all related characters; this story (apart from the lines and actions quoted from actual _Power Rangers_ episodes) and any original characters that might come up belong to me. I owe a debt of gratitude to Phantom Rosabelle for her inspiration to start writing _Power Rangers in Space_ stuff… hadn't tried it in a LONG time and back when I did it wasn't any good, but I'm feeling more confident now!_

_**Continuity:**__ This fic takes place during and after "Countdown to Destruction, part II." It is not really a part of the story about Kimberly, Katherine and Tommy as depicted in my other "Tragedies and Triumphs" stories, but it is in the same continuity in that what happened to Rita in "The Replacement" and "Personal Affairs" will be referred to here. However, that is not TOO terribly important_

_**Mother of Us All  
><strong>_Prologue  
><strong>by MegaSilver<strong>

"Help me, Zeddy!" screeched Rita as the bright golden energy beam inched its way ever closer. It was a force she recognized all too well—a spectral value of good energy disseminating from the Morphin' Grid. One of the difficulties she had had to overcome when keeping Tommy under her evil spell had been the presence of this spectral value within the energies conducted by his Power Coin. As the conductive property applicable to this value was intrinsic to the fabrication of any Power Coin, there was no way to deactivate it—hence the need for the Sword of Darkness to override the value's potential to normalize the Coin's bearer overtime.

And here it was again. Headed right their way and in a massive, inescapable wave. And there was a whole heck of a lot of it. Anything they had perverted through dark magic would be completely crushed.

_My… my babies! My precious little creations and sycophantic cretin followers! They'll… they'll all be gone!_

But whatever maternal sadness the prospect evoked in Rita was quickly countered by egotistical fear: quite probably, Rita and Zedd themselves would also be crushed.

"Don't let it get—AAAAAAAAH!"

Rita shut her eyes, terrified at the fate about to overtake her. The sensation she felt when the beam passed over was akin to a moderate electrocution, as though something had been accelerated and burned out.

But within moments the physical pain had almost entirely disappeared, and Rita felt a slightly cool sensation, that of air moving over her body. That's when she realized that she was still alive.

Her magic was gone. Everything it had created was gone. Most of her minions were gone.

_And… Zedd?_

But when Rita looked up, whom did she see but a handsome man. A handsome man standing in exactly the same spot where her husband had stood just moments earlier. Rita gasped. No—it wasn't, it couldn't be… could it?

But then the man looked at her with a kind of smirk that, though she had never seen it before, spoke to her. A sort of sarcastic humor, a slight mean streak that was actually just a touch of genuine affection he projected towards her.

_Zeddy!_

They were alive. Their magic was gone. Their minions were gone. Dark Specter's entire apparatus was probably toast. Nothing would ever be the same.

But… so what? Living in the shadow of Astronema or the Machines, cooped up in that sticky RV on the moon? Was that really what they had lived their evil lives to become?

_Why in deep spaces did we WANT to rule the Earth? Where did THAT get us? Why do I care? Goldar, Baboo, Squatt, Scorpina… those idiots are all gone: now it's just me and Zeddy!_

From now on, nothing but pure and simple histrionic, narcissistic, hedonistic bliss.

"Wanna dance?" her husband asked in a deep, subdued, seductive tone.

* * *

><p>Zhane was truly sad to watch his new friends leave. He might perhaps have gone with them, if not for the fact that Karone was staying on KO-35 with Andros. Of course he didn't dare explain that to Andros, though he knew it would only be a matter of time before his best friend caught on. In any case he also had his friends within the ranks of the Kerovian militia—and his widowed father who perhaps would be returning to the colony, perhaps not—so it wasn't as though he didn't have other pretexts to mask his amorous fantasy.<p>

_My father._ Zhane looked sadly at Andros. The thought of his own father reminded him of something he had been holding off telling his friend, fearing the compromising impact it might have on Andros's role as leader of the Power Rangers.

Andros felt his best friend's eyes on him and turned to meet them. There was definitely an aura of sadness in Zhane's eyes, but it was a sadness borne of pity rather than of wistfulness.

"Zhane?"

Something told Andros it wasn't at all related to their friends' departure.

"Zhane, what is it?"

"I'll tell you later."

"No—tell me now." Andros braced himself for bad news. At such a moment as this there was no way it could possibly upset him more.

Zhane left Karone's left side to cross over to Andros's right. "Your parents." Those two words in such a somber tone with that gaze of pity made it clear that what Zhane meant to say was what Andros dreaded.

Zhane began to speak again: "I looked at the militia records. They didn't make—"

Andros held up his hand to cut Zhane off and let out a long sigh. He had known for years he might someday have to confront this terrible news. But always he had clung to that one glimmer of hope that their parents might still be alive.

Now that glimmer had vanished.

Karone had been listening to the whole thing, and she clung even more tightly to her brother's arm. "Andros?" Her voice contained not sadness but fear—perfectly understandable on so many levels. "What's going to happen to us now?"

Andros had no clue, but he couldn't show that. It was all he could do not to shed tears. "We'll be okay, Karone. We have each other. We're Kerovians; we helped them; they'll help rehabilitate us." But he didn't really believe in what he was saying. Sure, the provisional government was full of kindly and appreciative people—Zhane's buddies, no less. They would be helped, no doubt.

All the same, his life—and except for Zhane and Karone, the people in it—would be drastically different from anything he had had to date.

Karone blinked a bit. "Andros, I—I haven't known you very long… I mean, known you in a proper way. But I was there watching you during the fight this whole last year." She took a pause, and the expression on her face suggested to Andros that she was struggling to evoke the expertise she had acquired in the process without anguishing too much about how she had gotten it—by hunting Andros and the other Rangers down.

She continued. "You have nothing here. You'll be all alone."

"No, Karone, it's just not true; I… we…"

Zhane put a hand to Andros's shoulder. "Karone, how can you say that? I'll help you guys! I'll be with you all the way! You guys won't have to be alone one minute, I promise!"

True words, Andros knew. He also knew that he had little motivation to try to make it work here without the family and friends he'd known. Not here. KO-35 was back in the hands of the Kerovians, but the colony would never be the one he grew up in. He and Karone had little extended family and many of his friends had perished in the first battle for the planet.

In fact, all his close friends had perished in that battle… all of his Rangers. All except one, and that one had only barely survived.

And now that he'd finally had the stomach to pass their Astro Morphers on to others—and even become friends with them—could he find it within himself to reboot everything yet again?

But there was just one thing, and if only for this one thing, he had to force himself to do whatever it took.

"But Karone, I… if I go to Earth, what about you? You have no one here!"

Karone blinked. After a few seconds, she said, "I'll go to Earth."

"But—"

"Andros, I don't know anyone except you, Zhane and the Rangers. I've never had—not in so many years, I haven't had anything like a life worth living. It won't make a difference to me where I start."

"Karone, they know you as Astronema. What if they try—"

Karone shook her head. "No, Andros! I can hide behind my name. The only people who know _I_ was Astronema were the ones who saw me change back. I won't be in danger!"

"You might be."

"Then I'll take that risk!" Karone rested her head on Andros's shoulder. "Andros? I don't what I'll do if you don't help me right now. But I don't know what'll happen to you if you try to start all over here—and if you're down you won't be able to help me!"

Zhane piped up. He looked a little bit surprised, disappointed, even kind of hurt. "Hey, guys? Do I get a say in this?" he asked, his voice cracking a little, full of genuine concern and not humor.

Andros was still a little put off. "What do you _mean_, Zhane? _You_, you've got your dad, the militia, the—"

"But I can come back to that that whenever I want!" Zhane explained. It was true in a sense: he hadn't lost nearly so much as Andros had during that terrible battle. Plus, he was definitely more introverted than was Andros—a funny, generous and affable introvert, but an introvert all the same. He could start over and do okay, make new friends when it suited him or just be alone for a while if life necessitated it, and it wouldn't bother him too much. Maybe part of it came from not having any siblings or cousins.

In any event, the pretext that he would miss Andros too much if his buddy left just wouldn't float. Of course he _would_ miss the Rangers—all of them—but he wasn't at all a clingy person. There was, however, one thing Zhane was not about to let slip away from him, and he certainly wasn't going to say what that was.

"I mean…" said Zhane, "after everything that's happened with you and the other Rangers, how can I just watch you guys high-tail it back to Earth and… not go myself? If I can't do some good for you guys in the provisional government, then… what's the point of staying?"

Andros immediately thought something about that seemed rather affected. He looked at his sister, whose expression was still marked by anxiety but whose eyes shone with a glimmer of hope, of flustery emotion after having heard Zhane talk about that.

Andros look back to Zhane, whose own expression was a _very_ fake, _very_ sanctimonious display of sympathy and concern, while his eyes betrayed his robust excitement and just hinted at concupiscence.

_Excitement at the prospect of living on the same planet as Karone._

As sad and unsure of things as Andros was right now, just thinking about that made him smile just a crack. "You know what, Zhane? You are by far the _least_ convincing actor in the history of mankind."

Zhane's eyes went wide and he quickly tried to feign innocence in his face and in his tone. "Wh-what'd I do?"

Andros couldn't help but chuckle. "Well, if you know what's good for you, nothing I wouldn't do, for sure." His eye twinkled just a bit. He turned to look back at Karone. She was rolling her eyes, grinning and blushing ever-so-slightly.

Andros stepped out from between the two—out of the way of electrical, chemical and gravitational field—and made his way toward the MegaShip. After just a few steps, he turned back around, a big grin on his face. "It _is_ nice not to have to go back home to a lonely house." He motioned for Zhane and Karone to follow.

Squealing like kids, the two bounded over to their best friend and older brother, each on one side with an arm around him as they headed off to the ship's entrance. Once again, Andros was within the force field. But if that were the price to pay to be with these two at a moment like this… heck, he'd pay it!

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	2. Loss and Exile

_**Author's Note:**__ No, I have not abandoned "A Euro-Trip I'll Never Forget." Far from that! But I had this idea and whenever I take strolls around the Jardin de Luxembourg it just keeps developing more and more… and so I follow it._

_**Mother of Us All  
><strong>_Part I: Loss and Exile  
><strong>by MegaSilver<strong>

"Hey."

At the sound of the masculine voice, Karone whirled around, away from the large window on the observation deck of the MegaShip, from whence she had been gathering her thoughts with the cosmos as backdrop. "Hey, Andros," she said.

"What're you thinking about?"

Karone hesitated. What would be his reaction if she told the truth? "I was… thinking about Ecliptor," she confessed, putting her hands in her pockets and staring at the floor.

Andros folded his arms and nodded, not looking directly at his sister.

Karone felt a bit ashamed. "Andros, I—I know what that sounds like, but… he did save us that one time, before they… Andros, after Darkonda took me, Ecliptor took care of me. He was the only one who ever did until you—"

"He took care of you to turn you into Astronema," Andros reminded her.

"I know."

"And then he stood up for you because he thought of you as _his_ _work_."

"But he didn't forget about me when I didn't become what he'd tried to make me!" protested Karone. She blinked a few times.

Andros was breathing heavily and Karone thought he might be holding back anger. For a moment she almost stepped back, but then she heard his breathing calm and saw his expression turn to one of sadness.

"Mom and Dad made you what you are," Andros said bitterly. "Ecliptor helped the invasion that killed them."

"Oh, Andros, Mom and Dad!" Karone could only pull him into her arms and listen to his soft sobs. She herself was shedding a few tears, but her parents were but a very faint few sounds and blurry images to her. She didn't know how to mourn them properly.

All of a sudden a dreadful thought came over her and she pulled back to look her brother in the eye. "Andros, I… I remember hearing about that awful day. I was fifteen. One month later and I would've been sixteen and then…" She began stammering. "They would've… they might've… gotten _me_ to command… that invasion… and—"

"Karone, please!" Andros shut his eyes tight and pulled her back into his arms. "They didn't. You didn't. Just don't think about it!" He sniffled. "Oh, Karone, right up to the end, Mom was talking about how much she missed you and wished she'd see you again someday…"

Karone just didn't know how to respond to that. She, too, wished she could have seen her mother, but she knew it was a desire born of genetic loyalty and curiosity rather than acquired filial affection. How could it been otherwise?

* * *

><p>Zhane proudly presented his medical licence to Cassie and T.J. "Well, what do you think? Can I get an equivalence to practice medicine in the United States?"<p>

Cassie flinched a little bit, but she was somewhat amused. "Umm… I'm _pretty_ sure you'd need a translation… and I don't _think_ the American Medical Association would recognize a purportedly certified transcription from Kerovonto to the Latin alphabet."

Zhane turned the licence back around to gaze upon it. How beautiful it was, how artfully the lettering was engraved onto the marble backdrop! Inanimate written pieces, whether on stone or on paper, had long since become rare in the Kerova system, but they were still used for certain official, permanent documents. Zhane found them absolutely charming, for the same reason he loved cooking out on a campfire or paddling a boat with his arms: no artificially-generated electrical power, no numerical technology. Apparently there was a lot of that on his soon-to-be new home planet. How exciting!

All the same, he was certainly cocky enough to flaunt the superior scientific knowledge and technological advancements of his own native people. "Yeah, but I mean, c'mon: after what's just happened the last few days, sure they've _got_ to make some sort of derogation! Just look at the cryo-healing chamber in this thing: that stuff's _routine_ on KO-35! Not to mention I got my full licence by age 21!"

"Uh… Dr. Psycho?" T.J. sniggered just a bit. "_That_ little fact might not go down so well for your cause if that's common practice on KO-35."

Just as Zhane was about to retort, Karone entered the bridge. "Hi," she said, not really smiling.

"Hey, what's up?" said Zhane, walking over to her. "Where's Andros?"

"He's out on the observation deck." Her tone and her voice remained somber.

Ashley looked concerned. "Is—is he okay?"

Karone opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She gazed over at Zhane, and her eyes seemed to ask him for help.

"I'll go see him," Zhane announced, and started out of the control room.

* * *

><p>"Andros?"<p>

His friend looked so forlorn there seated by the main window, head pressed up the glass. Zhane sat down on the windowsill close to him and tried to catch his eyes. "Andros, what's up? Karone told us you were up here… did something happen with her?"

Andros shook his head. "Nothing. She just left me alone pretty fast, but it was my fault; I unloaded too fast on her. She almost doesn't even remember our parents… I think she knows how much it means that they're gone but she just doesn't feel it as hard as I do."

"Aww, buddy!" Zhane said in a low voice, pulling Andros into a bear hug. "C'mon, it's hard for you both. It's just hard in different ways."

Zhane knew what he was talking about. On the one hand, he'd lost his own mother at age three—and he understood how that sort of temporal distance and delayed consciousness of deprivation must affect Karone, as well. On the other hand, he'd known Andros since they were ten—and he knew just how special she'd been to Andros, and how kind she'd always been to Zhane.

"Karone knows that, too—believe me," Zhane continued. Then, not wanting to cause a scandal, he added, "I mean… she hasn't said anything about it specifically, but I can tell. It kinda goes along with everything else she's had to go through."

Andros nodded, pulled out a handkerchief and blew into it. "I'm still really worried about her."

"Hey, I know, but look: I'm here, too; we're all here: you don't have to help her all alone! And you've gotta look after yourself, too, you know."

Andros looked thoughtful. "Shouldn't be a problem. I had to look after myself for a year and a half after you and the other Rangers went down."

"Well, look, now we got your back," Zhane promised. "I got your back." He patted Andros's shoulder and squeezed it, smiling. "Hey, you've had ours plenty. You really had mine that day."

At last he saw Andros manage a smile. "I'm _really_ glad I did."

"Well, good!" Zhane patted his friend's shoulder once more and then arose. "I'm going back down. You want to talk about anything at all, you just buzz, okay?"

"All right."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Hey!" Zhane snapped his fingers. "What do you say after dinner we creep off to the SimuDeck, set up a nice little lounge and have ourselves a nice little… refreshment?"

"Hey, why not?"

"See you there, then!"

Zhane was quite content as he made his way back to the bridge. Okay, he didn't _really_ like seeing Andros all melancholy—but he thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to be actively supportive.

As well, of course, as the anticipation of sharing a nice little cocktail afterwards.

* * *

><p>A charming little platinum-colored café stood on the corner of a rustic, ancient-looking street in the heart of Triplex City on the planet Triforia. Outside, one might have thought oneself in first-century Memphis, Egypt or in the Roman Forum.<p>

Inside, a nervous young waiter approached a table with a very peculiar, non-Triforian-looking couple at the table. "May—may I help you two?" he asked. The Triforians were well aware that other sentient beings and hominid subtypes inhabited the universe, but they were not a particularly well-travelled race, nor were they particularly accustomed to seeing aliens on their planet.

So the sight of this obnoxious, unitary middle-aged couple with noses buried in the menus was quite the educational experience for this young man.

"Yeah, make it a double-sliced pork cut plate… for two!" the man snorted, jerking his face away from the menu."

"All right… uh… anything to drink?"

The man fumbled though the menu, growling at obviously not being able to find his beverage choice. "A pitcher of triple-fruit wine and two goblets!" he snuffed at last, tossing the menu to the poor boy. The woman did likewise.

As soon as he had gone, the woman pointed to the upended salt shaker in front of them. "Oh, _Zeddy_!" she hissed. "Haven't you forgot? We need _good_ luck now; we're not _bad_ anymore! Quick, toss some salt over your left shoulder!"

Zedd did so and paid no attention to the _"Excuse me!"_ from the lady he'd just doused behind him. "Well, Rita, old habits die hard, ya know!" He said it loudly enough that a few people in the restaurant turned to look in their direction.

At that moment, the front door opened up and a tall, powerful, royally-clad figure walked in, carrying an emblematic staff. It was a figure all too familiar to Zedd and Rita.

And apparently to everyone else in the restaurant, who immediately exited their seats and descended onto one knee.

"Your Royal Highness!" everyone said in unison.

Zedd and Rita glanced nervously at one another. "Quick, get down!" she whispered. They immediately genuflected, but neither doubted it was too late. Crown Prince Trey of Triforia, the Gold Ranger, would surely have them in his sights.

Glancing around at his subjects, Trey donned a smile, not a smug smile but one of paternal appreciation for those around him. "You may all rise," he commanded gently. "And be as you were."

Along with everyone else, Zedd and Rita returned to their booth, but these two were trembling just a little, and the trembling gave way to outright terrified shaking as they saw Trey come closer, then fix his eyes upon them, then stop to stand before them.

"May I be seated?"

"Y-y-yes!" both ex-villains insisted, each one moving slightly inward to make room for the Prince of Triforia.

"Your Royal Highness!" Rita added quickly, grinning wildly.

"Your Royal Highness!" Zedd followed, grinning equally wildly.

"Thank you." Trey sat down.

"What may we do for you?" asked Rita, not shaking any the less.

"I wish for an audience with you at my palace, the Pyramid of the Three Sectors in the city center, in two hours from now." Before the duo could reply, Trey reached into the small sack on his belt and took out a large silver coin, which he placed on the table. "For your meal," he explained. "Will you come to my palace this afternoon?"

* * *

><p>One reason for the relative provinciality of the Triforians was the very stringent restrictions on travel and entry on Triforia. Only members of the royal family could come and go as they pleased, and only the sovereign monarch could legally grant authorization to enter or exit.<p>

And the primary reason for such restrictions was that on Triforia, gold was far more abundant than on almost any other habitable planet in the universe—making Triforia a delicious potential target for space pirates. As a matter of fact, the inclinations of Divatox towards reckless piracy were precisely the reason Dark Specter had assigned Rita and Zedd to Triforia, fearing that the former would pillage the planet's wealth and squander it before he himself had had proper time to consolidate his newfound gains.

The abundance of Triforian gold and the metal's few industrial applications—beyond being a key component in many Morphing devices such as Power Coins or the Gold Staff, all of which used only a few ounces of the metal—meant that the planet's inhabitants took great advantage of its decorative potential. So Trey's palace was a splendid sight to behold: the columns were lacquered with pure gold on the top and bottom, as was nearly every panel in sight. The throne room simply glistened with a natural richness that would have made the architect of Versailles envious. Even the ropes tying the curtains above the throne incorporated real gold in their coloration.

Trey had specifically instructed Zedd and Rita not to present themselves by name, assuring them that the palace guards would be expecting his "guests from the Terra system."

And now, as these guests presented themselves in the throne room, terror overcame them once again. They were used to royal protocol, and to being received in Dark Specter's throne room, and to managing their own such rooms, and to the overt animosity and bad feelings that were so ubiquitous in the aforementioned quarters.

But never had they been in the throne room of someone who was or who had been on the opposing side of their own—and who had been so powerful while they, suddenly, were so helpless.

Trey descended his throne and approached his nervous, vanquished and genuflecting foes. "Welcome, my guests. You may arise. Shall we proceed to more comfortable quarters?"

Zedd and Rita looked at each other and then back at Trey.

"Excellent idea!" replied Rita.

* * *

><p>As soon as a server had finished pouring three cups of a hot infusion beverage on a round table in the ornate and well-furnished study, Trey said, "Thank you, Anton. Emilien," he said, addressing the guard standing at the door, "Anton, I would like a word alone with my guests, please. Anton, please set the pot on the commode behind me; we'll serve ourselves if we wish to refill."<p>

"Yes, your Royal Highness," said each one in turn before leaving the room and closing the door behind them.

When his faithful servants had gone, Trey turned his full attention to his guests. "Thank you both for coming. I'm very glad I was able to find you again when I did."

Zedd and Rita gritted their teeth, looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

"Well, you… really have a nice planet here!" Zedd remarked.

"And such a _beautiful_ palace!" Rita cooed.

Trey smiled. "Thank you."

"Umm—listen!" Zedd blurted. "It's… very nice of you to receive us like this. I assume—I mean, there's no hard feelings about that little invasion last week, is there?" He bounced his eyebrows and gritted his teeth.

"Yeah," said Rita, "no hard feelings! I mean, see, we were just going through a bit of a… well, a fifteen thousand year phase, if you know what I'm talking about!" She laughed nervously. "But we don't do that anymore!"

"Oh, no!" agreed Zedd. "We're out of that game!"

Trey nodded. "I know. I wanted you to come here so that we could discuss precisely that."

"Oh." The terror was now at its maximum. This was it: the moment of truth and justice. The moment of comeuppance.

"You see," Trey explained, "your invasion, as well as the vandalism, injuries and few deaths your forces caused fall under, as you might imagine, the jurisdiction of the Triforian Principality. Legally, the evidence is there, and certainly beyond any shadow of a doubt, against you. Therefore, the penal court is bound to prosecute, convict and sentence you—and the sentence, I'm afraid, will certainly be execution.

"However, as Crown Prince I feel I have a responsibility not only to my own people but also to those who happen to venture onto my dominions. I also believe in penal law as an instrument not of punishment, but of discipline and of deterrence. It is one thing to execute a dangerous individual, but it pains me to see the death of one who is, very clearly, no longer dangerous—particularly if his life experience gives him enormous potential to do good for the universe."

Zedd and Rita breathed a little bit more easily now, but were still quite intimidated. So there was just a little hope… but for what? What lay ahead?

Trey took a deep breath and continued: "There is just one problem. As sovereign lord of the planet, I am constitutionally permitted to pardon anyone for any reason, but I do not have the power to grant a pardon until the court has handed a sentence. The length of time it takes is varied, though in your case it would probably take less than one week after the case went to trial. So it would be painful, but very swift."

Zedd and Rita breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's not the problem," Trey added.

Zedd and Rita tensed right back up.

"The problem, you see, is this: once your case goes to trial, everyone on this planet will recognize who you are. And when that happens, it may not matter whether I pardon you or not. We pride ourselves on being a peaceful race. Unfortunately, almost no one in the universe is totally immune to the poison of the vengeful spirit."

Zedd and Rita just looked at each other, dread on their faces. There were no words to say at this point.

"And I'm afraid we cannot avoid the trial. Someone _will_ recognize you. Non-Triforian hominids are nonexistent here: when aliens come it is always with my direct permission and almost always for only a short time, and your particular mannerisms make you… quite distinctive. It will only be a matter of time.

"So, Zedd, Rita, I'm sorry, but I cannot allow you to remain on Triforia, neither for your own good, nor for the stability of my dominion."

Zedd and Rita were still looking at each other, the dread gone from their faces, replaced with dejection. Rita just shrugged.

Zedd piped up. "So… where do you suggest we go?"

"Anatomically, in your present state, you could only hope to blend into one of two star systems: the Kerova system or the Terra system. Of the two, you stand a much higher chance of success on the Terra system, as not everyone on Earth believes in extraterrestrials or the Power Rangers."

Rita was puzzled, somewhat taken aback. "Really? Well, I'll be!"

"Now that I think about it," remarked Zedd, "it makes sense. None of us has ever ventured beyond Southern California—except for that one time I tried to nab Kimberly in Florida."

Rita glared at her husband.

"Sorry!" Zedd gritted his teeth and cowered a bit. He had forgotten he was forbidden from bringing that incident up.

"So," said Rita, "we go to Earth. Then what?"

"So far as advice for living is concerned, I believe that Rangers of Earth, if they receive a message from myself, would be willing to see you on your way." Just listening to that prospect, Rita and Zedd cringed visibly. "I'll send you as far as Angel Grove. Ultimately I do believe it would be wisest for you to go elsewhere. However, as I cannot say exactly where would be a suitable location, I will have to leave you in their hands for that advice."

Trey arose. "Unfortunately, there is nothing more that I can do for you from my position here. But I know I can count on the Rangers of Earth to deliver their aid.

"And now, if you'll kindly excuse me, I do have some other business to attend to this afternoon. You will stay in my palace as my guests for tonight. But stay quiet and above all, reveal your identities to no one. No one else saw the battle's end that day. Only a few of my trusted servants know you are here, and only I am aware of who and what you are. And we must act while that is still the case."

Trey tapped his staff against the floor. A golden beam of energy shot onto the door and the handle glowed for a few seconds. That was the signal for Emilien to enter.

"Emilien," instructed Trey, "please show my guests to the Quarter of Privilege, and send the message for Anton to return for the porcelain."

"With pleasure, your Royal Highness," the guard agreed.

"I'll be back this evening and you will be called down at eight to dine with me," Trey informed his guests before leaving the room.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	3. Facing the Terran Music

_**Mother of Us All  
><strong>_Part II: Facing the Terran Music  
><strong>by MegaSilver<strong>

Andros and Zhane did actually sneak off every once in a while to drink: they were both twenty-four and their teammates were all eighteen or nineteen, so they tried not to shock them too badly. Maybe the others did drink, for all they knew, but Andros had heard the laws regarding that sort of thing were rather strict in the Rangers' homeland and supposed that perhaps the culture was, as well.

In any event, it was a good pretext to get in some quality best friend reminiscing and trash-taking. Besides, as Power Rangers they had to be careful not to go overboard, just in case something happened on a given night.

But now, of course, that was no longer anything to worry about.

So, about an hour and fifteen minutes into this particular session, Zhane was pouring himself a third Armagnac. "So, remember that one? Right before we went off to the Academies!" he exclaimed, pointing to a photograph in the digital scrapbook Andros was holding.

"Boy, do I ever!" There they were, aged fifteen, out at the beach with Andros's parents. That day, Zhane had encountered a dramantat—a nasty, scaly, medium-sized fish-like carnivorous critter off in the shallow waters, swimming towards him while baring its gaping jaws. But for all its bark, this species was actually pretty flimsy, even in its own aqueous habitat, and its bite was pretty weak, rarely causing anything more serious in humans than bleeding necessitating stitches.

Zhane's reaction—or, rather, overreaction—had been to pounce upon his assailant, howling with a fury usually reserved for battle charges, grab the thing by its tail, and start thrashing it against the surface from left to right over his head until he had killed it by sheer force—screaming at a low octave the whole while as his eyes displayed some bizarre mix of pride and fright. Now, Andros flipped the page and pointed to a picture of just that happening.

"Man, was I valiant that day!" Zhane proclaimed, putting on an aura of fake pride to cover up his embarrassment at seeing that photo again.

"Oh, what, are you kidding? It was a stinking dramantat, man! You looked and sounded like some sort of primate in heat out there!"

Zhane was not quite drunk, not really all that tipsy, even, but he was certainly 'relaxed' enough to find humor in his equally 'relaxed' friend's choice of words at his expense. He elbowed Andros in the ribs and laughed from his gut as he took another sip of liquor. "'Primate in heat?'"

"Hey, guys!" interrupted a cheery female voice. Immediately, the duo stopped laughing and looked up, trying to wear as serious of expressions and to tense their composures up as much as they possibly could.

"Hey, Ashley," said Andros, trying to sound innocent, even though he knew it was no use.

_Busted._

Then Karone followed Ashley into the simulated lounge. Both girls were smiling very widely. "Hey, guys!"

"Hi, Karone," Zhane murmured monotonously.

_Double busted._

Cassie, T.J. and Carlos came next. "Hey, there!" said T.J., waving.

"Hi," Andros and Zhane answered.

_Day of reckoning._

"Wow!" exclaimed Carlos as he saw what was on the coffee table in front of the couch the two sat on. He picked up the Armagnac bottle. "My dad _loves_ this brand! Did you guys get all this stuff in Angel Grove?"

Cassie looked over to the nearby bar counter and her eyes went wide. "Whoa, cool! Self-service beers on tap, too!"

Karone bounced her eyebrows, pursed her lips together and winked teasingly at her brother and her partner-in-flirts. Taking a digestives glass from the bar, she held it out to Carlos, who promptly began filling it.

"Hey! Carlos!" objected Andros, glaring at the Black Ranger.

"What do you mean, 'hey'?" Carlos shot back. "You've got one of your own! You've _both_ got one!"

"No, that's not what I meant! _Karone!_"

Her glass now filled, Karone looked at Andros and lowered her eyelids. "Dear brother, don't _even_ start with me," she purred.

"Karone, wait!" cried Zhane, shooting up from the sofa. "Have you ever drunk alcohol before?"

"Umm… just two or three times; I had a glass or two of wine at a banquet."

"Okay. If that's all you've ever had," Zhane said, gently taking the Armagnac out of her hand, "then _really_ just stick to wine until you're used to it." He picked up a corkscrew, intending to leave the deck for a moment to fetch a bottle of red. "'Cause if you do hard… you'll be on the floor in minutes, doing something I don't _even_ want to mention."

T.J., Ashley and Cassie came forth and stood before Andros and Zhane, looking them straight in the eyes and forcing their gazes to lock. The former three all wore stern faces and kept their arms folded.

"So guys," began T.J., "were you planning on staying up here all night?"

"And just drinking yourselves into the trash can?" added Cassie.

"And not even thinking of inviting us to share the wealth?" finished Ashley.

Andros was nonplussed. "Uhh…" he said sheepishly.

Zhane managed to save them face by changing the subject, albeit through fridge logic. "Well," he sighed, "guess I'd better go fetch a few more bottles!"

Andros smiled gratefully, now able to relax once more. "T.J.! Check the SimuDeck settings and put in some more seats."

* * *

><p>Three and a half hours, a lot of cheery banter and a copious quantity of libation later, the six Rangers and one honorary Ranger lay sprawled out over the comfortable simulated leather sofas and seats around the lounge table, all of them smiling and all <em>very<em> happy on this very first pause in the evening conversation.

Karone sat on the sofa between Zhane and Andros, leaning back against the backrest, one hand resting on one thigh of each of them. Ashley sat on the armrest of the same sofa, her feet resting on the easy chair she had initially occupied, her lower back against the backrest, her head against the simulated wall and her right arm around Andros's shoulder. Carlos and Cassie shared the love seat on the left of Ashley's easy chair, and T.J. sat alone in an easy chair to their right.

Cassie broke the silence with a giggle. "Karone, your teeth are all purple!" she laughed.

"Really?"

"Uh-huh!"

Karone took a mirror out of her jacket pocket and laughed. "_Cooooool_!"

"Oh… I'm wiped!" sighed Ashley contentedly.

"Me, too!" Carlos said, yawning.

"Time for bed!" announced Andros.

"_Stop simulation_!" called T.J.

"T.J., _NO_—" cried Ashley, but it was too late. At once, everything disappeared—the bar, the beer tap, the glasses, the table, the sofas, the chairs—everything except those articles that had entered the SimuDeck from the outside: the seven warm bodies and the empty or two-thirds empty two bottles of hard liquor plus three bottles of wine that sat on the table.

All twelve of these articles landed on the hard floor with a glorious crash, two of them shattering into pieces, and another spilling out all over the place.

Zhane, Karone and T.J. had each landed more or less squarely on the tailbone. Andros and Ashley had ended up pretty well on top of each other. Cassie and Carlos had each been tilted slightly to one side and, their joints lacking tension, had rolled pretty neatly to the floor.

His side splitting from laughter and his spinal base aching, Zhane at least managed to salvage part of the Armagnac.

Then they all heard Alpha-6's voice approaching. "Rangers, what's going on? I heard a loud noise and—Aiyiyi!" screeched Alpha as he arrived in the SimuDeck and witnessed the mess. "What on Earth happened to you?"

"Just a little too much good times, Alpha," T.J. assured his robot friend, slurring just a bit.

"Ohh… my bu-utt," cried Karone, rubbing her rear. She tried to stand but the heel of her boot slipped on a bit of the wine that had poured out and she fell right back onto the same spot. "_Oweee_!"

The fairly inebriated Zhane and Andros helped their equally inebriated but _far_ more lightweight co-Kerovian to her feet, and Ashley and Cassie then led her off to bed—at least, they led her as much as the blind can lead the blind.

"Oooh, _thank you_ for not throwing me to the black hoooole!" Karone sang as she was taken off.

"Rangers!" exclaimed Alpha. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Zhane stretched his arms outward and yawned obnoxiously. "Just the stuff friendships are made of, Alpha!" he explained through his yawn.

* * *

><p>Andros, Zhane and Carlos reported to the dining chamber for breakfast at around 9:30 Pacific Standard Time the next morning, a cool two hours after they normally would have. The rest of their friends reported at various moments over the next half hour. Everyone was nicely groomed, but no one looked completely awake.<p>

"Oh, my head and my tailbone are just _killing_ me," complained Karone. She had brushed her teeth pretty thoroughly, but she hadn't quite managed to lift all the violet stains from her mouth.

"Well, you took a nasty spill," commented Ashley.

"A spill?"

"Yeah, when T.J. turned off the simulator while we were all still sitting on the simulated seats," Ashley remarked, making a humorous dirty face at her friend the Blue Ranger—who just sunk his head into his shoulders.

"Oh, no!" Karone laughed a little and looked a little frightened. "I don't even remember!"

"Hey, Karone, you know what?" Cassie interjected. "Don't worry. There are definitely some moments from last night that are pretty much blank to me, too."

"Yeah—thanks, T.J. for almost knocking us out!" quipped Carlos jocularly. "What were you thinking, man?"

T.J. raised his eyebrows. "I'd say about as much as any of you guys at that hour—which is to say not really much at all."

Carlos nodded. "Fair enough."

T.J. looked suspiciously at Andros and Zhane. "So do you two do that all the time or something?"

Andros and Zhane looked at each other, then looked sheepishly at their friends. "Wellll…" began Andros, obviously uncomfortable, "not _all_ the time."

"Nothing like last night, anyway," Zhane mentioned, hoping to deflect the topic away from the heretofore-clandestine nature of their little after-hours club. "I don't think we've ever slammed them like _that_ since that one night six months after we finished at the Academies."

Andros gritted his teeth. "Ahh—and this morning I'm remembering _why_ we haven't since that night."

"You can say _that_ again."

Suddenly, DECA interrupted the conversation. "T minus 30 minutes until mid-course correction B. All Rangers report to the bridge in 20 minutes for focal calculations."

Carlos moaned and rubbed his aching head. "Why couldn't we just lose a day on the approach?" he muttered.

"Thanks, DECA," said Cassie unenthusiastically.

Zhane finished chewing the last bite of his omlette and put his napkin down. Collecting his plate, he announced, "That's right: landing day. In that case, better grab another round of bacon, eggs and orange juice."

"Does that really work?" asked Cassie.

Zhane shrugged and shook his head. "It's not gonna totally take it away. You've just gotta keep the vitamins and proteins flowing in and then hose your throat down with a lot of water so your body can work it off."

When they had all finished breakfast, Zhane and Karone started out of the dining chamber together. "Ugh," moaned Karone. "I don't know how I'm going to stay standing with my muscles like this."

"It'll be okay," Zhane promised. "Just drink lots of water."

"Why did we do this to ourselves?"

"'Cause it seemed fun at the time," Zhane offered, grinning.

"That's bad," Karone remarked. "I thought I was supposed to be good now."

"Well," said Zhane in a hushed voice, a bit provocatively, leaning inward, "as long as you're not _evil_, it _is_ kind of fun to be bad now and then."

"Hey!" Andros's voice startled Zhane. Quickly he backed off a couple of inches from Karone and looked at his friend innocently. Andros, in return, was smiling, but with a self-righteous twinkle that said, _Watch it_.

* * *

><p>The hangovers were not, fortunately, so long lasting as they might have been, thanks to the fusel strippers Andros and Zhane had run through the bottles upon opening them. By the time they had finished lunch, the Rangers were more or less fully operational, and now sat in the bridge taking inventory of the tasks done and to be done.<p>

"So, two days and then we get to Earth," sighed Carlos. "Then we go into orbit. Then what?"

"Well, obviously, we can't just keep orbiting forever," remarked T.J., "going down only during the day to live 'real' life."

"Okay, so we land," said Ashley. "And then what? How do we deal with the paparazzi, the government, the military… our families, even?" She grimaced.

"I say we start with NASADA," suggested Cassie.

"NASADA?" Zhane looked at Andros. "That's… that's the name printed on the shuttle, isn't it? What's it mean?"

Andros motioned toward the others. "They can explain better than I can."

"National Aeronautics and Space Administration – Defense Attachment," explained T.J. "Until extraterrestrials began invading through Southern California in 1993, there wasn't really any overlap between space exploration and military activity on Earth—at least, not any official governmental overlap. But then the representatives from California lobbied for the United States government to set up an integration station out west to monitor and research methods of intercepting extraterrestrial threats, just in case something were to happen to the Power Rangers."

"They were the ones who gave us the shuttle for the MegaZord," Ashley added.

"Ahhhh." Zhane nodded. "Yeah, I remember you mentioning something like that."

"I just always wondered how they managed to get ahold of something so perfectly fitting for a Kerovian ship?" Ashley puzzled.

"They must've intercepted some sort of message from Zordon," suggested Cassie.

"Are they the ones overseeing the launch of Terra Venture?" Carlos asked. He was referring to the United States mission to send a group of colonists to search for a habitable planet as part of a long-term strategy in case Earth had to be evacuated at some point.

"No, NASA is," explained Cassie. "NASADA's just overseeing the military installation."

"So you think they'll be able to help us integrate—I mean, help you re-integrate?" said Zhane.

Cassie shrugged. "Well, it's worth a start. I was thinking if we orbited the ship and went down to Earth discreetly—not everyone at once, obviously—we could try to work something out and see if they won't negotiate at least some sort of protection for us."

"It's not going to be easy," T.J. reminded them. "We might have to leave Angel Grove or even California, anyway."

Carlos's heart sank. So did Ashley's. Respectively, Carlos and Ashley counted four and three siblings, many cousins and very tight-knit families across the southwestern United States.

"Where would we go?" Carlos asked sadly.

T.J. shrugged. "The Atlantic, maybe. People west of the Mississippi River don't tend to believe in the Power Rangers that much. Of course… if the reports of the last couple of weeks have been spectacular enough, then it's anyone's guess whether that's still true."

"No, I don't think so," said Ashley. "I… I mean, I _hope_ not!"

"Did—did any cameras go off? I mean, when we were de-Morphed in front of the crowd?" asked Carlos, a bit nervously, still holding a rather bitter taste from the whole camera/secret identity connection.

"We have to count on it," said T.J.

Just then, Ashley noticed that Andros had left the bridge. She was about to follow after him, but then she heard Cassie say:

"Maybe it'd be better to not even try going back. I mean, if NASADA knows we're back they might tell others… maybe we ought to just the East Coast right away and lay low."

"No!" cried Ashley. "We've got to try something!"

"I agree!" said Carlos. "If we're really in for trouble, someone will recognize us eventually even on the other side of the country."

"Besides," added T.J., "we can't keep the MegaShip in orbit forever, and we'll never be able to make a discreet landing on a planet as populated as Earth. We'll need escorts wherever we bring her down."

"Hey, where's Andros?" Cassie piped up.

"I'll go look for him!" declared Ashley, before anyone else could.

* * *

><p>A royal carriage driven by powerful equestrian drove swiftly to the outskirts of Triplex City early in the afternoon. Inside, Prince Trey was accompanying Zedd and Rita to the launch pad, from whence they would begin their journey to their new home of Earth.<p>

The planet they had tried to alternately conquer and destroy. The home planet of their worst enemies after Zordon.

"Oh, Zeddy, it's too early and I just feel so sick about this whole thing!" whined Rita, clutching her stomach.

"Sure it's not just P.M.S.?" Zedd asked rhetorically under his breath.

"What'd you say?"

"Nothing."

Then Trey spoke up. "I need to warn you, we have no intergalactic teleportation system apart from the royal access module. And you'll be going on a pilot-less ship. I have engineers who can monitor you from the ground here, but I'm afraid there is no one who would be able to escort you and therefore we won't be able to allow the ship to go as fast as it otherwise would."

"How fast, exactly?" Zedd asked, beginning to feel a bit queasy itself.

"Your journey will take twelve months by the Terran calendar. You'll be sedated for the trip."

"Twelve _months_?" Zedd gasped, his eyes bulging.

"_Sedated_?" Rita followed. "Oh, I have a _headache_!"

* * *

><p>Andros was only a few steps down the hall, leaning his side against a wall when Ashley found him. "Are you okay?" she asked.<p>

Andros nodded but did not look at her.

"Kind of complicated, huh?" Ashley gritted her teeth. "Maybe it would've been less of a pain if we'd all stayed on KO-35, after all."

"No," Andros shook his head. "You guys have your families on Earth."

"Oh, Andros." He was doing his best to hide it, but Ashley knew just he must suffer terribly from the loss of his parents. She cradled his head in her hands and kissed his forehead before pulling him into her arms. "Karone told Cassie and me about your parents. I'm so sorry."

"Some Power Ranger I've been," Andros muttered. "I couldn't even save Zordon."

Ashley tsked. "Now, Andros, come on. That _really_ wasn't your fault. Dark Specter was the one who kidnapped him and drained his powers. We did everything we could to find him in time. _You_ did everything you could."

The pretty falsehoods Ashley spoke just ripped through Andros's heart like pure, corrosive lye. For days he had kept the horrible truth a secret. No one had been aware, except maybe Karone. At first she genuinely hadn't remembered anything of what had happened during her reprogramming, but then little by little memories had come back. She had claimed that those last moments with Andros in the Dark Fortress were still kind of blurry, but Andros suspected she was fibbing a bit to avoid forcing him to talk about the whole thing and that she remembered quite well what Zordon had instructed him to do before she had suffered her head trauma.

But Andros could bear his own deceit no longer.

"Ashley," he said. "I—I have to tell you something." He pulled away and looked at her.

"What is it?"

Andros looked behind her. No one was there, but he could just barely hear the voices of the other Rangers coming from the bridge. "Let's go off alone for a minute."

Once the pair was comfortably seated in the Observation Deck, Andros began.

"I _did_ actually find Zordon, before he died."

Ashley's eyes went wide as Andros continued.

"Dark Specter had just finished draining all his powers, but kept him in that energy tube, feeding him back just enough of his power to keep him alive. They must've had awful plans to use him for something."

Andros swallowed. "Zordon was… in the Dark Fortress when I went to look for Karone. Right before I found her, I found Zordon there. He told me…" Andros blinked a few times, trying not to let his voice crack. "He told me that—that I had to shatter the energy tube; that way the last bit of his energy would be released, and it would end the battle. But it—he wouldn't… he wouldn't have anything to live on then."

Ashley's eyes went wider still.

Andros inhaled powerfully. "Before I could make myself do it, Karone caught me. She was still Astronema. She fought me. I took her out. For a minute I was afraid I'd killed her. Then Ecliptor found her… and he tried to take me out in revenge. But I fended him off, and Zordon summoned me. He told me, it was my duty as a Power Ranger to save the universe, and I had to shatter the tube now."

Andros could no longer blink back the tears. "So I readied my Spiral Saber, and I did it." He rubbed his eyes. "I killed Zordon, Ashley." He hung his head, covering his eyes, clearly ashamed to cry in front of his girlfriend.

Ashley sat there staring in shock for a few moments before asking, "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I couldn't bear to relive it" he murmured. "Even then, I knew I should just keep fighting, keep trying, anything except that. But I had no idea how or what we could try, and when Zordon told me it was the only way I did what he said."

"Andros, listen: you did the right thing."

"The _right thing_?" Andros practically shouted the words.

"Andros, do you think Zordon would have told you to do something that was actually grossly evil?"

"But he _did_!"

"No, Andros, he didn't!"

"What if it's _murder_?"

"Andros, no!" Ashley objected. "Andros, five years ago, my grandmother—my mom's mother—was in a terrible car accident. The parts of her brain that controlled breathing and heartbeat were completely destroyed." At the sad memories coming back, Ashley felt her own eyes well up. "She… she was on artificial life support and she was in a coma for three weeks before the doctor told us she was never going to wake up. My grandfather made the choice: he took off the life support and she died. It was awful. Even though he'd thought through everything and he'd even talked to a priest about the situation he just couldn't stop talking about how he'd 'killed' my mom's mother, even though she and her sisters were all really worried about him." She sniffled. "Andros, no one likes this stuff. No one. But it _happens_."

Andros lifted his hands from his eyes. The lights were off in the Observation Deck, with only the faint computer screen glows and the starlight from the other side of the glass to illuminate their faces hauntingly. "But… he didn't withdraw her life support knowing her death would do something good."

"What do you mean?"

"He would've had to do it either way. I wouldn't have done it if Zordon hadn't told me to."

"But he had nothing but the energy tube!"

"But maybe we could've found a way to restore his powers!"

"Or maybe not!" Ashley blinked for a few moments, not quite sure herself. She knew she would be reacting the same way Andros was, probably much worse: she'd be isolating herself and letting herself go bitter the way her grandfather had done ever since his own tragic loss It was bit taxing, letting a boyfriend spill everything out for her like this. It made her feel all the more vulnerable herself. On the other hand, that sense of vulnerability was just all the more impetus for Ashley to want to do something for him—even if, until she could see the results, she would feel so helpless.

Andros was breathing softly and strategically, trying to avoid snortling, but his voice still let Ashley know just how clogged his nose was. "I hate that I did it," he said. "And now I have to face you guys."

Perhaps the fear of that was what had elevated his sorrow to self-blame. He had lost his parents; he had lost Zordon. But he'd found his sister, his only other reminder of his parents—and he could never forget how his friends had helped him. T.J.'s sharp announcement, _"We're coming with you!"_ when he had said he was going to find his sister still rang loudly and clearly in his head.

That, after all, was why he was moving to Earth with them now: they were the only family he and Karone had left. And if they knew about Zordon… would he lose them?

Seeming to read his mind, Ashley said, "Look, it's okay. I won't tell the others."

Andros shook his head. "_I_ need to tell them. And soon. I owe that much to them."

Though, of course, Andros was aware that his current teammates hadn't been particularly close to Zordon. Now that he'd managed to face his deed in front of Ashley, spilling the story would be relatively easy.

But telling the former Power Rangers… that would be a different story altogether. And a responsibility that, for better or for worse, he could not shirk.

He let out a sigh and rested his head on Ashley's. He felt so vulnerable and helpless: the leader of the Power Rangers, freshly victorious… and yet broken and bruised, on so many levels, beyond anything he had ever been in his life.

* * *

><p>Just over an hour after they had arrived at the launch pad complex, Rita and Zedd found themselves strapped into bottom half of a small, two-part spacecraft. They looked at each other nervously. This was it. No turning back.<p>

"There's one last thing," Trey admonished. He placed a small, ornately decorated metallic box in the small compartment between the couple. "Inside this box are a letter explaining your circumstances and a gift for the Power Rangers. I trust you to deliver them."

The duo could scarcely believe their ears. Trey of Triforia would _trust_ them?

"Goodbye, my new friends," Trey bade. "I wish you all the best for your new lives… and from now on, may the Power protect you."

With that, the second half of the spacecraft began closing on top of the duo. Just before it came all the way down, Zedd darted his eyes to catch Trey's and said, "Thank you!"

"'Thank you'?" snuffed Rita when they were alone in the dark. "Thanks for _what_? He's kicking us out of his place and throwing us into that Rottweiler Ranger kennel!"

"Oh, stop your shrieking," Zedd growled. "He could've just killed us there and then!"

"So, what does it matter? We're as good as dead _now_! Oh, I have a headache!"

"_Ohhhh_!" Zedd shook his head in the dark. How was it that Rita always complained about migraines—when her incessant whining always gave _him_ the headaches? "Good night, motor mouth!"

"Good night, muscle head. See you next year."

* * *

><p>The Rangers, warriors, sages, friends, allies, rulers and ordinary persons across the universe who would have paid tribute to Zordon were too numerous to count—and would certainly have overwhelmed the planet Eltar. The principal funeral was therefore a private affair, with only a very few non-Eltarians asked to attend.<p>

Among these favored guests was Dimitria of Inquiris, who had so graciously filled in for Zordon on Earth in Eltar's hour of need.

But as Dimitria was preparing to return to Inquiris, she was stopped by a young-looking girl wearing spiral braids, who presented herself as Zordon's cousin—and next-of kin, his immediate family having fallen in various battles throughout the past millennia. She presented Dimitria with a heavy, iridescent emerald-colored jewel box and an ivory-colored envelope.

"These are for you," the girl said in a soft, unpretentious voice that contrasted notably with Zordon's confident bass tone. "The envelope, Zordon had told me to keep for you in case something should ever happen to him. The box, he had prepared right before Eltar fell and intended to give it to you right away, but we were all captured or evacuated before I could retrieve it. I'm just thankful it survived all the chaos."

Dimitria eyed the objects for a moment before reaching out a delicate hand to take hold of them. "Thank you," she bade the girl.

Immediately upon teleporting home, Dimitria retired to her private chamber and opened the box. Best to deal first with what seemed to have been urgent.

Several information storage and display devices were enclosed, as was yet another ivory envelope. Dimitria gently tore it open and removed the letter inside:

_Greetings, Dimitria of Inquiris:_

_Over the past few months I have come across information that has allowed me to deduce the identity and location of your twin sister. Because of the many complexities in this tragic and heartbreaking story, I ask that you look at the documentation contained on these disks, in chronological order, before reading my final conclusion. The truth will not, I am afraid, be easy to accept._

_I hope that my efforts on this matter will be at least a suitable token of my appreciation for all that you have done for me, and for my Rangers on Earth._

_Yours faithfully,  
>Zordon of Eltar<em>

Dimitria was a strong woman and not someone who had known Zordon particularly well personally, but there is something about reading the words of the recently deceased that simply sinks down deeply, as though a last bit of the life force has flickered before vanishing forever.

Dimitria was naturally quite curious to know what was on the disks, but as it did not seem too terribly urgent, she decided to first tear open the second envelope.

* * *

><p>"It was really nice of your parents to let us stay here while we work on a plan to approach NASADA," remarked Andros as he and Ashley entered the fireside room of the Hammonds' house.<p>

"Hmm? Oh, hey, look: no big deal! Two of my brothers are out of the house already, so we've got plenty of space. If we didn't have all my cousins in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix driving back and forth and using us as a crash pad, I don't know what they'd do with themselves!" Ashley grinned.

In actuality, though, it had taken some coaxing and even a bit of emotional manipulation on Ashley's part. Ashley's mother was more enthusiastic about hosting the Kerovians than was her father, not the least because it was rather obvious that something was going on between Ashley and Andros—and of course Mr. Hammond wasn't quite sure how he felt about his nineteen-year-old daughter dating an alien—even if he was another anatomical _homo sapiens sapiens_—, especially one who'd just come to Earth without anything like a steady job offer or permanent residence.

On the other hand, when Ashley had walked through the door just the previous week, it wasn't as though her parents hadn't known by then that she was the Yellow Ranger. After everything that had gone down, her they did feel kind of obliged to her, and at least appreciated that she had not neglected to tell them about her friends' origins—"just as long as the boys stay in their own rooms at night!" her mother had specified.

For her part, naturally, Ashley was thrilled to have Andros under their roof—as well as Zhane and Karone.

Now, Ashley took a seat, but Andros just stood and admired the decorations. A whole lot of red, green and white, sprinkled with gold and silver embellishments here and there… and the _tree_. The evergreen tree, full of colored metallic bulbs, tinsel and various figures each with _lots_ of personality—and crowned with a beautiful winged celestial hominid figure.

"I've never seen a tree like that before!" he remarked.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah—the Christmas tree!"

Andros looked at Ashley, obviously curious. "What's Christmas?"

"Oh, wow, it's like, our biggest holiday of the year! Actually… that reminds me; I still have to go shopping for Christmas presents!" Only three weeks of Advent remained.

Andros sat himself down on the couch. "'Christmas presents'? So… what's it about? Is it like a birthday?"

Ashley hesitated. "Well, kind of." She felt a little guilty. They had started talking about 'Christmas' and there the first thing she had thought about was shopping. "It's not just presents, though. But… I mean, at the origin…" She trailed off a bit.

Andros nodded. "So what's it about?"

Ashley took a deep breath. "Well, I'm not exactly the most qualified person to go into all the historical and spiritual details…" She looked away from Andros and fixed her eyes on the miniature wooden stable atop the commode near her arm. Another angel sat on the roof of the stable, and inside were several shepherds, a few barn animals and a young, first-century couple standing atop a feedbox, which was empty—for now.

"… but I think I can give you the basics."

* * *

><p>Two weeks later, Ashley escorted Carlos into the same fireside room, where Andros, Karone and Zhane were already seated. "Hey, guys!" greeted Carlos. "What's up?"<p>

"We were just trying to think of surnames," explained Zhane.

"Zhane and I have to get Social Security cards for our new jobs at NASADA," said Andros. "But they want us to have last names, and we don't have any on KO-35, so the three of us were trying to come up with some."

Carlos looked Andros directly into the eye and grinned. "How about 'Hammond' for Andros?" He ducked to avoid Andros's fist sailing into his belly.

He did not, however, avoid Ashley whacking him on the arm. Zhane and Karone giggled nearby.

"Hey!" exclaimed Ashley. "Why not 'Kerova'?"

"For Zhane or for us?" asked Andros.

"Well… for all of you! When people invent surnames they usually take something that means something. Why not the planet you're from?"

"But everyone in the Kerova system would have that!"

"But you'd the only ones on _Earth_ with that name—and besides, it's not like a last name means anything on KO-35; you said so yourself!" Ashley shrugged. "Besides… it'd be nice to pass a little reminder of you heritage on to your kids, right?"

Andros thought about that. To take the name _Kerova_ would be to pay tribute to his roots—and yet, at the same time, it would signify his assumption of a Terran identity and a Terran way of defining himself as a person.

Almost paradoxically, to take the last name _Kerova_ would represent a grand act of assimilation on Earth, and another step in bidding goodbye to his home planet.

"What do you think, Karone?" Andros asked.

Karone nodded. "Karone Kerova. I like it!"

"Zhane?"

Zhane donned a big smile. "Hey… same last name means we're family, right? Andros, it'll be like we were brothers!"

Andros nodded. "And Karone's your sister," he quipped mischievously.

"Whoa, hey, let's not be taking things _too_ far!" Zhane looked over at Karone, who winked saucily at him. In return, he bounced his eyebrows at her and pursed his lips into a kissing position.

"Indeed!" agreed Andros. "Let's not be taking things too far!"

"So you're going with Kerova?"

"I'd say so. Karone?"

"Kerova it is!" his sister proclaimed. "Zhane?"

"That's _Mr. Kerova_ to you, Miss!"

* * *

><p>The day after Christmas, the Hammonds left on a skiing trip, with Ashley staying behind to get ready for things to come. So the seven friends gathered together at her house for a nice post-Christmas dinner.<p>

Things were finally beginning to look up for the Rangers. Not all of their parents had reacted so understandingly as Ashley's, but at least they were all beginning to reach a sort of equilibrium.

Three days earlier, they had landed the Astro MegaShip in the desert of California and been escorted out quietly by NASADA shielded vehicles while the California National Guard fended off the press. The shuttle would be returned and the MegaShip, along with its technical blueprints, donated to NASADA, under the terms the Rangers had negotiated with the interdepartmental executive branch over the past three weeks.

Beginning in January, Andros would be working with NASADA as an interdepartmental technology consultant and liaison. Zhane would be working as a NASADA medical technician-slash-laboratory specialist—it turned out that his KO-35 medical was not particularly suitable for issues of patient care or invasive surgery, as the better dissemination of information and the superiority of robotics technology in the Kerova system tended to render those roles for a Kerovan medical doctor rather redundant, hence also the shorter training period. Both Kerovas would be well-compensated, though they suspected that the career prospects at NASADA for a technology consultant would be better than those for a medical technician—at least until the program made serious headway so far as the need to analyze extraterrestrial biology was concerned. In addition, the two of them had moved into a pretty sweet 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment near NASADA headquarters. Karone was still staying at Ashley's house until the start of the new school year.

Andros had, without mentioning Karone's name, pleaded Astronema's case, showing the remains of the brainwashing technology, and even—unbeknownst to the other Rangers—gotten a private audience with the Governor of California and the President of the United States, who had graciously agreed to issue a pardon to Astronema for any and all damages related to the invasions of the past year. Moreover—though the other Rangers knew about this—the Governor and the President had issued executive orders of immunity from any property damage claims against the Rangers. As a bonus, all of the Rangers would be exempt from any and all California and United States tax liabilities until their deaths.

Finally, Karone and the other four Rangers would begin attending classes at Angel Grove University the next semester on NASADA-funded grants. They would have the option of transferring to any school that would accept them—and transferring their grants—should they find they disliked the attention they were receiving in Angel Grove. Karone in particular welcomed the opportunity to get a Terran education and learn a few things about living as a "normal" Earthling. All five of them had decided to live in the dormitories, at least for the first semester, to get a taste for campus life and to reacclimatise themselves to the civilian world.

Now, in the dining room at 12:30 PM, Ashley made the rounds with a bottle of pink Champagne. And boy, had they earned that toast.

It had been a rough month for everyone, but it was starting to look as though they might, possibly, make it through.

Maybe.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	4. Things We Never Knew about Each Other

_**Special Thanks:** _A quip in Phantom Rosabelle's "Nail Polish" was_ what inspired me for the general explanation as to why Zhane was not present in "To the Tenth Power," so thanks!**  
><strong>_

_**Author's Note: **__Soon, this story is going to change titles! "Mother of Us All" just isn't general enough for a story that is turning out to be an epic weaving of character vignettes. But I'm going to wait a chapter or so to alter the main title in the system, so that the people who were reading it under the original don't get confused. Thank you so much for all your kind feedback. There is plenty more to come! Please do review—I love to hear what people like/dislike about this!_

_**The Ones I Love  
><strong>_Part III: Things We Never Knew about Each Other  
><strong>by MegaSilver<strong>

"Hey!" exclaimed Carlos after the Champagne toast. "Guess who Ashley and I saw after Mass yesterday? Rocky!"

"Hey, cool!" exclaimed T.J.

"Yeah; we didn't recognize him at first. He said Adam and Tanya are still in town and Tommy and Kat are flying in from Australia tomorrow to spend New Year's here."

"Australia? I thought I heard Tommy and Katherine moved to England," mentioned Cassie.

"Yeah, they did. I guess they spent Christmas with Kat's relatives."

Ashley was seated at the head of the table, Andros directly across from her. She noticed him looking a little uncomfortable and caught his eye. She wasn't sure what to say, but she tried to give a sympathetic look.

She knew exactly what he was thinking.

* * *

><p>After dessert and coffee, Andros and Ashley—who had made all the preparations—took a little stroll in the backyard while Cassie tried to herd everyone else around to clean up properly.<p>

"I'm going to have to do it this week," said Andros. They both knew what he was talking about. He'd have to tell the old Rangers what had happened to Zordon. "Now that everything's settled administratively there's no reason to put it off. As long as they're all here…"

Ashley nodded. Well, maybe not _all_ of the former Rangers were there, but there would be a good five of them—at least. "We'll come explain with you."

"Ashley, no," Andros insisted.

"Andros, we're a _team_. We were in that fight together."

"I acted alone when I shattered Zordon's tube. I made a unilateral decision. I didn't consult any of you."

"You didn't have the time! It could've been any one of us!"

"But it was _me_, Ashley!" Andros looked at her, his eyes stern but not without emotion. "I can't ask the rest of you to face them. I did that alone; I have to finish it alone."

Ashley sighed. She was a little exasperated. "Andros, what if we _want_ to be there to face them with you? It's not like before, when we were needed somewhere while you went up to the Dark Fortress! You know, there was no point in you coming all the way to Earth to live life with the people you love if you won't take their help when you need it!"

"Well, then, maybe there's no point in me being here, huh?" Andros shot back angrily. Without another word, he stormed back toward the house.

"Andros, wait!" Ashley cried as he entered the back door and slammed it shut behind himself. She was just a bit shaken up. She'd seen Andros overreact before, but he'd never overreacted _at her_. It was just a little bit scary and unexpected.

As Ashley stood there, wondering whether to run after him, to fume, to cry, or a combination of these latter to, Cassie came running out of the house.

"Ashley!" she exclaimed as she ran over to her friend. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Ashley was trembling, and growing closer to tears. "I don't—we just—"

* * *

><p>When Ashley and Cassie re-entered the house a few minutes later, Karone was the first one they saw. "Andros left," she explained, sounding rather frightened. "I couldn't stop him. I—"<p>

"Babe, it's okay," assured Zhane, kissing Karone back near her ear. "It happens sometimes. There was nothing anyone could do."

* * *

><p>After that incident, T.J. and Cassie spun into town and rented a few Jim Carrey movies, just to help everyone unwind a little bit.<p>

About three hours later, right in the middle of _The Mask_, Zhane heard a voice whisper, "Psst! Zhane!" He turned to see Ashley standing above him. "Can I talk to you a sec?"

"Yeah, sure." Zhane looked apologetically at Karone and pulled his arm out from around her. "Hey, I'll be right back."

Karone flashed him that familiar pouty-Astronema "_Nobody stands me up!_" face.

"Just for a couple minutes!"

Karone rolled her eyes and shrugged, as if to say, "_If you must._"

Zhane followed Ashley out of the TV room and into the reception room. "What's up?"

Ashley drew in a deep breath. "I don't know whether I should tell the others what happened out there," she said. "Andros wants to tell the old Rangers about Zordon."

"Yeah, I know. What's the big deal?"

"He wants to do it alone." Ashley hung her head. "I told him I couldn't understand why he'd come all the way to Earth to be there for his friends and then not let them help him."

Zhane shrugged. "Well… I mean, he _was_ the only one there. He'll be the only one with anything to say to them. If we go it'll look like he has something to be ashamed of, like he's scared, we're only there to back him up."

"And I think it's a good idea to back him up!"

"Ash, are you kidding? What the hell could happen to him?"

Ashley was a bit startled. She'd never hear Zhane mutter anything like profanity before. Then again, they might not have the same indelicate words on KO-35; he might just be picking up a few things from _Ace Ventura_.

More to the point, though, she hadn't really expected Zhane to take Andros's side on this. Though, come to think of it, what _had_ she expected? She wasn't really sure. Maybe Andros was just being macho trying to cover up his sorrows of the past month. But _why_? And if that _were_ the case, why would Zhane…?

Never mind. "Zhane, we weren't nearly as close to Zordon as Andros or the old Rangers," she insisted. It was true: among this group, only Andros had had significant time working with or under Zordon. "Carlos is the only one of us who's close even one of them, Adam. But the old Red Ranger, Tommy… well…" She bit her lip. "I get the impression that he's really…"

"Reactive?" Zhane offered. "Hey, so's Andros, you know." That might have stung, but Zhane quickly qualified it. "Look, c'mon. Andros always thinks he's really mad like that and then he calms right down. He probably thought you were being too strong-armed about it. Just give it a day or two and don't bring it up again; it'll be all right."

Ashley was a bit unnerved. Maybe it wasn't just a macho thing, after all. "Just like that? But Zhane, he—"

"Ash, c'mon!" Zhane shook his head. "Look, that's one thing that's just not worth it. If he feels bad about it he'll say something, but honestly, it's not worth getting worked up over."

Ashley had dated boys before, but they had all been around her age or just a year older—and that was during adolescence; they had all been quite immature and the relationships had never lasted beyond a few months. But if Zhane were right… maybe this whole macho do-it-yourself thing was just how men _were_.

Ashley sighed. "Well, maybe we should like, follow him in secret. You know, hide out, keep watch; then if something _does_ happen—"

"_Ashley_," Zhane moaned, chuckling a little.

"But you know, the old Red Ranger, Tommy—I think he's… you know, not reactive like Andros reactive, but like, stubborn, grudge-holding. If—"

"Ashley, Andros can more than hold his own. You know that."

"But it's one Ranger on five! And maybe they won't—"

Zhane put an arm around Ashley as he interrupted, "Ash, look. If you don't fry your own cerebellum first, you're gonna have a nervous breakdown. C'mon, let's go back to the TV and shut our brains off again, huh?"

Ashley still wasn't quite comfortable with all this. She really hoped it _was_ just a guy thing and that it wouldn't come between her and Andros. But even if it _were_ just a guy thing… she'd probably be in for more at some point in the future.

_Boy, no one ever said real relationships would be this tough._

Neither one noticed the blonde girl clad in black slipping back into the TV room before them.

* * *

><p>Walking back his apartment at about 11:30 PM, Zhane quietly yanked off his boots and then stretched himself out on the leather sofa. The place was still pretty sparcely furnished, but hey—that good sofa was all he cared about right now.<p>

He lay there staring at the ceiling for a few seconds, contemplating what to do. Fight the fatigue exacerbated by the heavy food and the red wine—_really good wine, too!_ he thought—he'd consumed throughout the day and evening, brush his teeth and go to bed in his room? Just let his relaxed imagination fly wild here on the couch and wake up nice and disoriented at some odd hour tomorrow? Or sit up and force himself to stay awake in front of yet another movie?

_Hey, yeah… we do have a TV, too!_

But before he had made up his mind, Andros walked out of his bedroom. "Hey."

"Hey." Zhane sat up and rubbed his eyes. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Andros sat on the far side of the couch from Zhane. "How's Ashley?" he asked, looking like he felt a bit guilty.

"I think she'll be all right," said Zhane. "Just a little surprised."

"Karone?"

Zhane nodded. "Just fine."

A few seconds passed before Andros spoke again. "I guess she told you she wanted you all to come with me when I told her I'd be going to tell the old Rangers about Zordon."

"She told me," Zhane explained. "She didn't tell the others."

Andros looked surprised, relieved and just a little bit touched. "I shouldn't have yelled at her like that; it was dumb."

"Tell that to _her_."

"You know, though, I really _don't_ want anyone to go with me."

"I know," said Zhane. He blinked a few times. "Can I say something… about Ashley?"

Andros shrugged. "Why not, at this point?"

"If it'd been me in your place and my girlfriend in Ashley's, I wouldn't even have told her I was going to go talk to them."

Andros leaned back and put his hands behind his head, thinking about that for a moment. Then he said, "I look forward to the day when I'll understand women."

"Me, too."

* * *

><p>"<em>AAAAAAUGH! WAUGH! HA! OH!<em>"

A series of piercing cries tore into Karone's peaceful mid-afternoon contemplation two and a half months later. Quickly she jumped up from the porch swing she was sitting on and darted her head around. The noise had come from the front side of the cabin she and her friends were staying in; she had been relaxing around the back and gazing out at the sequoia-crowned lake just fifty meters away.

Cautiously, she began tiptoeing around to the side of the cabin. The tone of the screams had sounded effeminate, but the only other girl there yet was Ashley—Cassie, Carlos and T.J. had had a test late that morning and wouldn't be arriving up in Napa County until early evening—and it certainly didn't sound like Ashley's voice.

Pretty quickly, though, she heard Zhane and Andros mumbling and chuckling and footsteps approaching her, so she let her guard down. When the two arrived, she saw that Andros's hair was somewhat dishevelled and that Zhane had his hiking boots in one hand, his socks stuffed inside.

"Umm…" Karone grinned. "What was _that_ all about?"

"Ah… long story. Actually, it's kind of a secret," said Andros. "I've been sworn not to tell as long as Zhane is a good boy all week." Karone saw Zhane glare at Andros, and Andros smirk in return.

Karone looked down at Zhane's feet. "Why'd you take your shoes off?"

"Uhh…" Zhane looked at Andros, then back at Karone. "That's actually _part_ of the secret."

Karone's eyes went wide. "I'm not sure I _want_ to know!"

Actually, she wanted very much to hear this story, but she knew Andros well enough by now to know that he wouldn't budge, even for her. Zhane, on the other hand, just might sing… _if_ she made it a point that evening to go slowly with the wine—and could be fortunate enough for him drink himself into near-oblivion without her.

Andros stood between the other two Karovas and put a hand on one shoulder of each. "Kids, Ashley and I are going to go buy food. Don't burn the house down."

As soon as Andros was back around the house, Zhane plopped down onto the porch swing, dropped his shoes on the ground nearby and mumbled in a mocking tone, "Kids, don't burn the house down."

Silently concurring with Zhane's irritation, Karone rolled her eyes and sat next to her boyfriend. Well—sort of her boyfriend. They mostly saw each other around their friends. It was a bit complicated, after all, with her living on campus and him working full-time at NASADA. They'd been on one real solo date, back in December, between Christmas and New Year's: they had gone to a movie and had dinner. Perhaps that was a fairly standard first time out, but Karone, totally inexperienced and unknowing as she was as to what "normal" dating should look like, didn't know that. What she did know was that the movie had been spectacular and the restaurant impeccable… Zhane really could choose good entertainment.

And good wine. It had been Zhane's idea to have the entire group come up to a viticulture region over spring break, and Ashley had off-handedly suggested the Napa Valley. According to Zhane, œnological production methods and tasting principles were basically the same on both KO-35 and Earth: what was different on Earth was the variety of the fruit—Terrans called it "grape"—used for fermentation. Of course the production on Earth was less technically advanced, but apparently, that made a bigger difference principally for cheaper wines. For the more carefully-prepared wines, said Zhane, drinking Terran wine was what he imagined "Kerovian wine must've been like a thousand years back! It's like stepping back in time. Think of all the history!"

Zhane was something of an enigma to Karone. On the one hand, he really had a way with women. The way he'd calmed Ashley that night right after Christmas… and from what Karone could tell, the whole Andros versus ZEO Rangers affair hadn't even been an issue since then. And that first time Karone had really met Zhane, that day back by the campfire in the woods, he'd been so adroit at… managing her, at letting her flip out at him and then delicately holding his own and bringing out something… well, _good_ in her for the very first time that she could remember… and then to capture her long-term sentimental fixations.

Not easy to manage, a girl who'd had her childhood stolen. Not easy to bring out the good in the Princess of Evil. Not easy to attract, one's mortal enemy.

Zhane was overall a good guy and had good taste. On the other hand, the awkwardness with which he steered their development of their relationship strongly suggested he had never dated a girl before. He didn't even call her _babe_ unless Andros was gone—and that in itself was fairly rare—perhaps for fear of pushing his friend too far. And now that they were no longer star-crossed, he seemed at a bit of a loss as to what to do with her… or anything else. It was a bit annoying for her.

Actually, though, Karone was a bit unsure of what to do with herself. She was at AGU with the four Rangers and of course she hung out a lot with them, but she felt like she did a lot of listening and not really much talking. Not that she minded so much—she genuinely wanted to learn what normal people with normal upbringings were like and wanted to become as approximately a stable human being as she could—but now and then she wondered if she shouldn't be branching out just a bit. But it was really intimidating. She wasn't quite sure where to go or what to do looking for friends, or what to tell them when they, as they inevitably would, ask where she was from or other details about her past. A number of boys, of course, expressed interest in her, but she was spoken for—and even if the seriousness of her relationship with Zhane were still up in the air, she was definitely _not_ into the undergrad guys at AGU and was more than happy to use that excuse to turn down a date.

And Andros… both Andros and Zhane believed in Karone's goodness and she could never forget that they had been the first to have done so. Andros was certainly more attentive than Zhane, though almost to the point of smothering Karone. At times she thought her brother almost condescending. Plus, Zhane had seen the good in her without knowing of her past; Andros had not.

So while Zhane was just perhaps a bit too deferential to Andros in matters concerning his sister, and while Karone didn't quite know what to make of Zhane's seriousness—in love or in anything else: intelligent and more than capable at his job but quite relaxed about work patterns, he hadn't hesitated to take a full week off just two and a half months into his new job to come up to Napa whereas Andros was only coming up for the two weekends—, she certainly couldn't say he lacked genuine affection and admiration _for her_. He was perhaps the only one. And she certainly returned that affection.

And she savored this precious moment, there in the swing with him, alone together, exposed and unprotected. If something happened, they'd have to protect themselves. Andros wasn't there.

And Zhane? Valiant protector, one of the most powerful Rangers in the universe… and if something _did_ happen, he would probably prove to have forgotten to bring his Digimorpher—he was the only one of the Space Rangers to have retained his Morpher.

Karone smirked a bit. How silly. Nothing would happen. What _could_ happen? She herself had been the Rangers' chief threat—and no longer was one.

"Hey, babe, what're you thinking?"

Suffice to say, hearing Zhane cut into her thoughts about… _Zhane_ with that question rather started Karone. "Umm…"

* * *

><p>Several months later, Zhane and Karone were strolling together through Angel Grove Park. It was the third time they had been alone together since that day by the campfire when she had still been Astronema.<p>

The academic semester had just ended, and it was quite a relief for Karone. It had, she knew, been a stressful semester for the Rangers, as well. Celebrities, all of them, they had found themselves closely watched by professors and peers across campus. Andros, for his part, had dealt privately with whatever had gone down that day back in December when he had met the old Rangers.

_Zordon._

Karone's stomach bunched up every time she thought about the name. The memories were so vivid. She could never have lived with herself if she hadn't been able to remind herself again and again that she had never played a role in the kidnapping or draining of Zordon until she had been totally 'reprogrammed.'

If only she could say the same for everything that had happened before then.

Normally, being with Zhane was enough to perk Karone right up and make her forget her blues, but today, she was just so overwhelmed and burnt out.

"Hey, babe, you okay?"

That pet name brought a little warmth to the young Ms. Karova, but only a little.

When she didn't answer, Zhane pressed on. "What's wrong?"

Karone shrugged. "Just a little burnt out from my first semester. It was really long and… kind of lonely."

"Ah." Zhane kicked a couple of stones out of their path. "The girls don't invite you out on weeknights?"

"No, they _do_—it's just…" Karone sighed. "They invite me to everything, I feel like such a third wheel sometimes."

Zhane nodded. "You should just go out alone sometimes. Meet some more people, maybe."

"How? Where?"

"Well… maybe join an aerobics class—or how about fencing? You're pretty decent at that. Or maybe just go to the Surf Spot one night when Ashley and Cassie have homework and you don't—it's a pretty short walk from your end of campus."

Karone noticed Zhane hadn't offered to take her out more often. Understandable, maybe… he worked full-time and on weekends the group always got together. Still, she fantasized every now and then.

"What if people ask me where I'm from?" she said.

"Just say you're from KO-35 and that you came here with your brother, the Red Ranger."

Karone rolled her eyes and pursed her lips together. "Yeah, right."

"They'll believe you! Everyone in Angel Grove knows what happened."

"Then they'll find out I'm Astronema."

"They—_no_," sighed Zhane, sounding a bit exhasperated, but he smiled. "Come on. Look, just think of yourself as _not_ Astronema and you won't come off that way. It'll be okay."

"Easy for _you_ to say," Karone muttered. "You didn't turn someone into stone."

Zhane opened his mouth and then shut it again. He didn't seem to have been prepared to hear that. "Okay, look. It wasn't you; it was… well, here, they apparently call it Stockholm Syndrome."

Karone stopped in her tracks, looked Zhane directly in the eye and raised her eyebrows. "_What_?"

"It's a kind of post-traumatic stress. People who get kidnapped and held hostage for too long sometimes become attached to their kidnappers because they depend on them for survival."

Visions of Ecliptor ran through Karone's mind. She struggled to keep her voice low and appear disgruntled and not sad. "Thanks," she muttered, a little sarcastically.

"Don't get mad! It happens all the time; it's totally normal!" Zhane threw his hands up in the air and shook his head. "Gah! Karone, what do you want me to say? That I'm gonna start calling you 'Astronema' again? That okay, poor Karone, she's so sad and lonely and there's nothing she can do? That, all right, you're right: you're really just a freak?"

Karone's jaw went slack. Who did he think he was?

Zhane continued: "Look! Maybe you _are_ a freak, but then _I'm_ a freak for liking you all the same. And I'd rather _be_ a freak than _not_ like you. Seriously! Get a grip."

With that little line, Karone's catatonic stare quickly melted into a snicker. At last. Zhane's artful blend of sarcasm, frustration and totally hopeless affection was just the mood-lifter she'd been hoping for.

It had taken a bit longer than usual, and she still wasn't quite so sure of herself… but what did it matter? All that could wait.

Still laughing, she watched as Zhane's expression evolved from one of confidence—almost arrogance—into one of weakness and nevrosity. His cheeks flushed a deep pink as he began to chuckle himself, and Karone suspected that he didn't know just how skilful he was at this.

She also hoped he'd never figure out.

When her laughter had subsided a little, she took a step towards Zhane, so that they were only inches apart. She watched the color slowly fade from his cheeks as he leaned down just a little. She widened her eyes and opened her lips ever so slightly, pushing her head steadily upwards toward his. He recommenced his own movement toward her lips, until—

—suddenly a shot rang out. Karone yelped and ducked, and Zhane took her in his arms. Just a few yards away from them, energy beams shot into the ground. Above them, a pretty snazzy-looking mechanical object was following the beams to make a pretty cool landing.

"Oh, no," Karone moaned.

"Here we go again." Zhane gritted his teeth as the hatch to the ship opened.

A hominid-proportioned figure jumped out, wearing a sort of metallic space armor. The figure jumped onto the ground and took off his helmet. "Whazup, Zhane?"

"Hey! Zarto!"

A second figure jumped out of the craft. "Yo, cuz!" he exclaimed as he tore off his helmet. The two figures looked almost exactly alike, with the same dark brown hair and similar facial expressions, styled only slightly differently.

"Markos!" Zhane greeted the second. "Hey, Karone, these are my cousins Zarto and Markos! Their parents moved to Outpost 34 right before I was born; we only saw each other once in a while growing up, but _man_! Good times." He looked from Karone to his cousins. "Guys, this is my girlfriend Karone… you know, Andros's sister."

* * *

><p>Four days later, Karone and the five non-Silver Space Rangers watched as that same intergalactic Karovan shuttle executed a brilliant takeoff on a NASADA runway. Aboard were brothers Markos and Zarto… and cousin Zhane Karova.<p>

The Karovans were trying to drill a wormhole to tunnel between KO-34 and KO-35, the first and so far only two permanent Karovan Outpost projects, as well as between each colony and the mother planet. They apparently required, however, a Power Ranger with a Galaxy Glider to traverse the sector and punch the hole safely. And since Zhane was the only one of the Space Rangers with a Morpher still in his possession, he was of course the logical choice.

To be able to leave his post, Zhane had proposed to General Norquist that the project could also serve as a diplomatic and information-gathering expedition for a possible tunnel between Earth and the Karova system. Norquist had agreed, and so Zhane would be going away to Karova for an entire month.

_A whole month._ Surely he wouldn't be working… the WHOLE time that month, would he?

Probably not. Zhane had mentioned doing a bit of tourism—or "interplanetary backpacking," as he had called it—with his cousins, and had asked Karone about coming along.

Of course, the other Rangers wouldn't be coming: Andros had to work, Ashley wouldn't want to leave him for too long, Cassie had her job at the library and T.J. and Carlos were working with Carlos's dad. Otherwise, it would have been a good chance for Karone to bond with and prove herself to the other Rangers… after all, deep space was something she knew at least as well as any of them. But being alone on what was by now for her a strange planet half the time as Zhane went about with work and the other half the time galavanting around with three males, cousins… hoof. She just couldn't see herself coming back anything but more unnerved than she already was, and so she had declined.

In any event, Zhane would have had to have NASADA provide a larger spacecraft to accommodate four people, and for these circumstances that would certainly have been impossible.

As Karone stood there now, she just couldn't let go of her frustration. So there he was off, on a too-long business trip, right when she thought they had a little bit of free time and their relationship might just start to really bud. They were doing so good. Now school was out… and she had to just put it all on pause?

"Hey!" Cassie waved a hand in front of Karone's face. "We're all going to go."

"Oh." Karone had been lost in thought. She forced a smile.

As they began approaching command central, Cassie stayed near the pensive Karone. "You okay?"

"Mm-hmm."

"He'll be back before you know it. Don't worry."

Karone shrugged. "I'm not," she lied.

"You know, Ashley and Andros are going to go to the theatre tonight. You want to maybe do a girls' night out, just us?" Cassie bounced her eyebrows.

Karone lit up just a little bit. Get to know someone besides Andros or Zhane? "Sure, why not? What are we doing?"

"Ah… why don't you pick?"

Karone thought for a moment. An idea came to her, and she looked down at her hands. _Blech_, she thought, but it was good for the idea. "Well, I don't know about you, but… I'd kind of like to get my nails fixed. Then we can get something to eat—you pick; I don't know where's good. Then maybe… ice skating?"

"Cool!" said Cassie. "And if we're not too tired, I'll introduce you to _Gone with the Wind_."

"Is that a movie?"

"Yep! Oh, my gosh, just wait till you see Clark Gable!" Cassie sighed happily.

_Is he as complicated as Zhane?_ Karone wondered.

"Andros!" General Norquist came running towards the six. "Andros, quick! We've got a distress signal appearing to come from Terra Venture!"

It was after Andros's normal time to leave, so the other Rangers waited for him in the parking lot. When he came back a half-hour later, he made an announcement to the six.

When he was done, a dejected-looking Cassie turned to a dejected-feeling Karone and said, "Sorry about the girls' night out."

* * *

><p>One week later, in Andros's apartment, Karone listened attentively as the Rangers told her the tragic tale of the death of a Pink Ranger.<p>

"She saved my life," said Cassie wistfully. "I wish I could've stayed and helped them."

"But Cassie, we need you here," protested Ashley. "Especially now that we know there are still remnant evil forces strong enough to need Rangers to repel them."

"She's right," said Karone. "The UAE may be gone, but no doubt Zordon was only able to take them out with him."

The Rangers all looked at her silently.

_All eyes… on me? They want… me to speak? I—I can help?_

Karone continued. For the first time in months she spoke with confidence. "Onyx, for example. It was a diplomatic planet, an interterritorial arbitration zone. Kind of like an entire city with nothing but foreign embassies. It wasn't just UAE forces that gathered there." She stood. "Now, you'll have to assume that any non-UAE evil forces are still operational. You'll have to be vigilant. For the time being, they're all much weaker than anything from the past six years, but they may try to make noise."

"But why Earth?" asked Carlos.

"The Morphin' Grid," said Andros.

"Precisely," said Karone. The other Rangers were still seated, and for a minute, Karone felt as though she were still Astronema, giving a briefing to her crew. "The inner core encases the most potent conductor to the Grid in the entire universe. If anyone gets his hands on that, it's curtains for everyone else."

"Well," sighed Cassie, "with the Pink Quasar Saber missing they new Rangers are sure to have trouble fending off—"

"'Quasar Saber'?" Karone interrupted. She looked interested.

"You've heard of them?" said T.J.

"Only by name. I remember they were supposed to be important."

"They're the sources of the new Rangers' powers," explained Andros.

Karone's eyes went wide. "Where did you say Terra Venture was?"

The Rangers looked at each other. "Somewhere near the planet Rashon," said Andros.

"I don't think the Saber is on Rashon," remarked Ashley. "We saw it float up away, remember?"

Karone felt her heart began to beat heavily. It was a pulse of simultaneous nervousness and excitement.

_I think I have a job to do._

"They'd better find that Saber fast!" said Karone. "All the planets nearby are full of outlanders. I remember them: they were a useful nuisance; they'd sell their grandmothers to us for a brick of gold! If the Saber lands on one of them, there's no telling where it'll end up. And if it's powerful enough to create a Ranger…"

"Then it might be powerful enough to help someone rotten get back here and get to work on Earth," finished Cassie, a look of dread in her eyes.

"Precisely." Karone drew in a breath. Yes, she had a job to do. For the first time in months, she felt she had a purpose to her life. "There's only one thing to do. I'm going after the Saber."

"Karone, no!" cried Andros.

"Andros, there's no other way! You've already said you'll be needed on Earth and with Zhane gone there's no one else on this planet who knows the cosmos as well as I do.

"Besides… with the UAE gone there was no one left to tell what happened that day in December. Surely it hasn't gotten out that I've switched sides? So if someone already _has_ gotten to the Saber I can pass for Astronema and navigate the underworld to retrieve it."

"Karone, have you lost your mind?" exclaimed Andros.

"It's dangerous!" Ashley concurred.

Karone was beginning to feel a bit frustrated with all this patronizing. "Well, is it any more dangerous than what I did for so many years of my life? Is it any more dangerous than what you guys just did this last week, what you'd done for years up until last December?"

"You know," began Cassie, "she's got a point."

Andros put up a hand to signal for Cassie to stop. "Karone, let's go outside; I want to talk to you a minute."

_Ugh. Condescension again._ "Andros—"

"Please," Andros begged.

And through filiopiety, Karone acquiesced.

The apartment was located on the outskirts of town, and out there on the porch the urban traffic was barely audible and the stars glistened above. "Karone," began Andros, "I don't want to lose you again."

Karone couldn't help grit her teeth. "Is it all about _you_, is that it? What about the universe? What about Terra Venture, the new Rangers, Earth? Andros, what about _me_?"

"What do you mean, you?"

"Andros, I still don't really know what my place is, what I'm supposed to do now and how to even start atoning for everything!"

"So _that's_ what this is about." Andros put his hands on his hips.

"Andros, I don't expect you to understand how I feel. They took me away from you and brought me up to do so many terrible things—but through it all I learned so much more about them than they would ever want us to know. If I can use that knowledge for good now, then…" Karone paused to take a deep breath. "Then maybe I can accept myself without thinking my childhood was totally wasted, like maybe I can live my life without thinking I need to just amputate a part of myself."

Andros was a little nonplussed for a moment. Then he said, "But Karone, you've already infiltrated the forces of evil disguised as Astronema and they sucked you back in."

"But that was different! This time nobody's looking for me. Nobody probably knows what I've become, even!" She looked at her brother, a stern expression on her face. "I know you want to protect me. But I _have_ to do this, Andros. It's logical, and it's what I want."

Andros shook his head. "I'll never be able to get NASADA to launch a spacecraft for you."

"I'll make it happen."

"I don't see how."

Karone had a plan, but she wasn't telling. She just leaned over to her brother and kissed his forehead. "I'll make it happen," she repeated.

"C'mon, let's go inside. We'll talk more tomorrow."

_Talk all you want, but my mind's made up._

* * *

><p>After saying goodnight to the boys—and slipping a little note underneath Zhane's bedroom door—Karone returned with Ashley and Cassie to the Hammond family apartment in downtown Angel Grove that they had shared since the end of the school year and went to bed.<p>

Karone, however, awoke at 2 AM. Confident that her friends were asleep, she dressed and then quickly stashed everything she thought she'd need into a smallish duffel bag. Hopefully the real heavy-duty equipment would still be where she'd left it.

Before leaving the apartment, Karone scribbled a quick message to slip under the Pink Ranger's door:

_Cassie—_

_Thanks for sticking up for me. You're great!_

_~K.K._

* * *

><p>Outside the Dark Fortress Museum, Karone searched for a window as close to the entry ramp of her old home as possible and levied a crowbar. After tripping the alarm, she'd probably have less than three minutes to get everything up and running. Not a problem, if the thing was still as functional as the MegaShip had proven back in early February.<p>

Otherwise, she'd be spending the rest of the night in jail.

_This is it. No turning back._

Karone hurled the crowbar against the window.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	5. Rebounding

_**The Ones I Love  
><strong>_Part IV: Rebounding  
><strong>by MegaSilver<strong>

As a light rain—rare in June—showered Angel Grove, an excited Silver Ranger pulled his Silver Cycle to a nice halt in front of the Surf Spot and hopped off. "All right! Power Down!"

Zhane took a good look around at all the wide-open streets and massive buildings. There was something about Earth—or maybe it was just this one country—, with all its primitive limitations and enormous spaces, that was just such a pleasure to behold.

They'd managed to get the tunnels drilled through pretty fast back on the Kerova system and now travel among the colonies and the home planet would be a breeze. But how they would surely miss the breathtaking visions of the cosmos around them, the relaxation of an hours-long voyage juxtaposed against the exhilaration of high speeds!

Plenty of people would of course still use spacecraft, just to "feel" the voyage. Just as on Earth, plenty of people still drove automobiles across the North American continent rather than take the plane, just to "feel" the road.

Hey… what an idea! This had been a business trip, after all—albeit one punctuated with many fun and funny episodes with father and cousins. Why not make his next trip a road trip across the U.S.A._… on motorcycle… with Karone!_

It was a rainy Saturday and when Andros hadn't been at the apartment, Zhane had come looking for them at an indoor joint. It had turned out to be a good bet: their cars were in the parking lot of their favorite hangout.

Zhane was about to just bound into the Surf Spot and barrel into everyone, but he knew it'd be better to stay low-key when they went out, or else they'd be recognized and quite possibly inundated with autograph requests… or more. So, he calmed himself down and strutted casually into the place, discreetly slipping over to the table where his friends were finishing up lunch. But… where was Karone?

"Hey guys!"

The Rangers all looked up and smiled. "Hey!" exclaimed Andros, slapping his hand into Zhane's for a shake. "Welcome back."

"How was your trip?" asked Cassie.

"Ah… good! Real good; I brought back a nice big crate of Karovan wine!" The others laughed a little, helping Zhane relax a little. What could possibly have happened, anyway? Unafraid, he casually asked, "Where's Karone?"

Andros suddenly wore a serious expression, and Zhane's nerves tightened up more than they had at any moment since Karone had rejected him as Astronema almost ten months prior.

"Is she okay?" Zhane murmured.

Andros stood up. "I have to tell you."

* * *

><p><em>Dear Zhane,<em>

_I understand you had to go on such short notice. I hope you'll understand why I had to go, too, and why I couldn't wait to say goodbye to you._

_The new Power Rangers on Terra Venture need help—and the powers of the Pink Ranger have to be kept as far away from villainous forces as possible, lest they use them to penetrate Earth again. Then everything you'd worked for would be undone. And I know these petty thugs and what they'll be pulling better than anyone else on the side of good._

_So I'm taking a risk and going after the Power. I'm not going to pretend I'm not taking a risk: I know what I'm doing—more than some people might think—but there's a risk all the same. I couldn't just keep waiting around for something to happen, waiting for my life to feel complete. You were right, what you said that day at the park: I have to go out there; I have to live my life in order to move on._

_Zhane, listen: please don't try to come rescue me from this. I know how hard it is and believe me, it's hard for me, too, leaving like this. But I have to do this. And if for any reason I fail, you'll surely be needed on Earth. Remember you're a Power Ranger._

_I wish I hadn't had to leave without seeing you again. I hope I will see you again, and I hope it's not too long before then. But if anything does happen, I want you to know how grateful I am for all your caring and affection. You gave me hope for myself when I needed it._

_Karone_

Seated on his bed, Zhane clenched his teeth, crumpled the letter and pressed it to his forehead. After fuming for a few seconds, he flattened the paper back out and went through it again, slowly.

"_I understand you had to go on such short notice. I hope you'll understand why I had to go, too."_ So was it because he had left that she had? Come to think of it… he had been kind of a jerk to go off like that. Or hadn't he?

"_I couldn't just keep waiting around for something to happen…"_ Couldn't wait for what? Or for whom? Was he just too slow-moving, to absent?

"…_waiting for my life to feel complete."_ So Zhane… hadn't made her feel complete?

"_Karone"_—just _Karone_. Signed _Karone_. No _Love_. What did that mean? She didn't love him? Maybe… should he have said, "I love you" sooner?

_What should I have done?_ Zhane anguished. _What should I have said?_ He buried his face in his hands and curled up into a fetal position.

It was early evening. Within a few minutes, he heard a knock on his door. "Go away," he muttered.

"Zhane, I really want to talk," said Andros.

"I don't." Not with Andros. Not right now. Here he'd been all this time for his best friend, comforting him about his losses, going in on an apartment with him and helping him with everything from dealing with the Rangers to Ashley and then when he'd taken a notice to a girl who just happened to be Andros's sister… Well, Andros didn't really directly disapprove, and Zhane could take a few wisecracks now and then, but… it always seemed as though Andros had nothing good to say about Zhane and Karone, and when Zhane would bring it up Andros would change the subject. And _now_ he wanted to talk?

"Okay, but… when you feel like it, think you could come out and talk? It'd kind of help me out a bit, too."

Zhane felt a bit selfish. Yes, he thought Andros was too possessive about Karone, but he had to think about what this felt like for his best friend, as well. Sighing, he forced himself to rise up off the bed and walk through his door.

By then, Andros was already in the living room. "Hey, that was fast."

Zhane just shrugged. He looked around, impressed at how _clean_ the apartment was. "The place looks really nice."

"Yeah, Ashley stopped by a couple days ago and surprised me with a nice deep-cleaning."

"Wow. Ashley learned how to clean? Last I remember, she totally blew out the vacuum cleaner _and_ scuffed up the entire bridge floor!"

It was true. That week, it had been Ashley's turn to do cleaning duty, and she had not only tried to vacuum hard floor on carpet-suction setting but also plugged the 120-volt vacuum cleaner into a mainframe-type outlet without a voltage reducer. Not, of course that Zhane was one to talk about housekeeping: he knew, mechanically, how to clean, but his things were generally quite disorderly.

Andros shrugged. "I think living alone with Cassie finally housebroke her. Somewhat."

"Wow. I guess I'll try not to mess it up, then."

"Yeah, you'd better not!" Andros joshed, giving Zhane a light punch on the arm. Zhane's reaction was very, very mellow. Andros added, "You look like you could use a Scotch."

That was a little amusing. Usually Zhane was the one proposing alcohol. "Yeah… wouldn't be so bad right about now."

Once they were seated on the sofa with their shots of Macallan, Zhane spoke up. "You think she'll come back?"

"I hope so," said Andros. "It's been three weeks already. No information… but there's not really much information that comes through from Terra Venture except routine updates. I keep waiting to hear a mention about the Pink Ranger or something to know she succeeded.

"Do you think… if she found the Saber she became the Pink Ranger?"

"If it responded to her. I don't much about how the Quasar Sabers work.

"I wouldn't be surprised." Zhane paused for a moment before continuing. "Then she wouldn't come back for a while, would she?"

Andros shrugged. "There's no way to know."

"I shouldn't have gone to Karova."

"Come on, Zhane. She might've gone even if you'd been here."

"I don't know. It was just so silly of me, running off with the guys on a nice little trip like that at the last minute—"

"It was a business trip, Zhane!"

"Yeah, but I lobbied for it!"

Andros nodded. "You're right about that."

"Things were just starting to really get started with her, too… and then I totally ruined the summer."

Andros looked at Zhane. "You really care for her a lot, don't you?"

Zhane looked back at Andros. "You just now figured that out?"

"Well, I mean, I knew, but… I knew you were a good guy, Zhane; I always have. But, I mean, things like spring break in Napa, this little trip and everything—I didn't know if you were all that serious about her or about trying to settle down. You've always been great at whatever you did… but you never stay in one place, you never fought in sync with the other Rangers… know what I mean?"

Zhane opened his mouth to retort but shut it. Andros was right, after all. "I guess I've never been that serious about things in general," he said. "I like Karone a lot, but I didn't realize how much I cared or how much I was looking forward to seeing her when I got back. But then when she wasn't there it was… it was almost like I might as well have just stayed back on KO-35." He sighed and took a sip of Scotch. "If only there were something I could do to show her…"

"She knows, Zhane," Andros assured his friend. "I could tell, even though she never talked to me that much about you; I think she was afraid of what I'd say. I kind of kept both of you guessing about how I felt about you two… it wasn't really a good thing to do."

_At last._ Zhane was so relieved to hear that. "Yeah, you _were_ kind of a jerk sometimes these last seven months. I mean, a few wisecracks here and there is one thing, but…"

Andros chuckled a bit, clearly not able or willing to dispute that. He had indeed crossed the line from wisecracking to dissuading on a number of occasions: it was one thing to tease a friend as a subtle reminder about propriety from time to time; it was another to make a remark along the lines of 'Watch it' almost anytime said friend was fewer than six inches away from your sister.

"Look, it's okay," Zhane added. "I know you were just getting to know her."

"Yeah," sighed Andros. "But I think I kept her too close. You know, though, when it was just Ashley and me she'd be kind of glum, not really say anything, keep to herself… but whenever you came by she'd light up a bit."

"Really?" Zhane was delighted. "See, she was always so much bouncier when we were off by ourselves!"

"Doing what?"

Zhane paused and blinked. "Andros… don't you trust me?"

"With what?"

"Well, you'd trust me with your life, wouldn't you?"

"I would; I have!"

"So why not your sister?" Zhane put a hand to his friend's shoulder. "C'mon, man… what did we just talk about? You smothering her too much and all?"

Andros pursed his lips together and drew his breath. "Look… you've got to wait until she comes back, you know."

"Don't remind me."

Andros downed the rest of his Scotch. "Well, wherever she is, I hope she's okay—and that she knows how important she is to us."

"I've heard… if you really want something badly, you've got to just let it go, but if it comes back it's yours forever." Zhane glumly stared at the thick streams of Scotch flowing down the sides of his glass. "Not much of a problem for me, now, huh?" He swallowed the last of his shot.

But there was one thing Zhane wanted, and actually, it was to let go of something, of his youthful whimsicality. Tearing around every which way month to month, not really planning a career, not thinking ahead about marriage or a home or anything…

Maybe it wouldn't have sufficed to keep Karone on Earth. But it was a good thing to do.

And if Karone did come back, and if they still had a chance together… it would certainly be what she needed and deserved.

* * *

><p>"Ashley?" said Andros as the couple on his porch to a light Sunday brunch the next day. "I got thinking late last night back to that day after Christmas, when we had dinner, and afterwards—"<p>

"Andros, it's okay," Ashley interrupted. "I understand."

"I know. And you didn't make a big deal about it when I brought it up later. But I think… the way things have been going all these last six months, it's been between us still. I was kind of embarrassed I'd yelled at you."

Ashley didn't respond. She just looked at him calmly.

So he continued. "And when you didn't bring it up or seem upset with me I was just too relieved to think I should have said something, but I really should have. So I'm sorry."

Ashley nodded, smiling. "I made myself let it go. I know you wanted to go alone. I didn't really understand. But after, I started to think maybe I could understand—I mean, in the sense that I could accept that's where you were coming from, even if I'd never feel the same in that situation."

"I didn't have to yell at you and storm out like I did, though. That was bad."

"It wasn't a big deal, Andros. I was just kind of surprised, but I think I understand why you were annoyed. I've just got to make myself get over it."

"You don't annoy me, Ashley. Not one bit."

It was the truth. Ashley was definitely a keeper.

* * *

><p>Two and a half months later, Zhane walked out of NASADA Command Central with a box containing his belongings. One month after that, just a few blocks away from his old place of work, a wine shop called The Zhany Tannin opened its doors for the very first time. The owner-manager, predictably, was one Zhane Karova.<p>

This was definitely the right career move. Zhane would never have survived permanently in a bureaucracy. He just couldn't submit every square inch of his time to one set authority. But here, on his own… he could take that. For when he had to make himself be responsible, he could be responsible.

About a third to a half of the wines stocked were Californian or Oregonian, though Zhane also bought a couple of Canadian Isweins as well and a fair amount of Australian, South American and Chilean wines. Not having the prejudices of a typical Earthling with regard to regions, Zhane simply tasted what he could find and bought the ones that he liked. The French and Italian wines that he was able to import without ruining were featured fairly prominently on the advice of one of his suppliers, but the real highlight of the store was his special reserve of Karovan wines. Limited supply and absolute exclusives on the globe thus far.

And seeing as how the Karovans were reluctant to make a serious attempt at tunnelling to Earth for at least the next ten to fifteen years, probably exclusives for some time to come. Zhane felt a little bit guilty—he had, after all, brought them back on his Galaxy Glider, so this was a bit like using his powers for personal gain… but he hadn't _intended_ to do so, so it was okay, right? The wine was supposed to what, sit there collecting dust?

On the store's second day, however, a different product threatened to displace the Karovan œnological treasures as the star of the store.

It started when a pretty young brunette girl came to the counter with two low-end bottles of Napa Valley Zinfandel. As Zhane was about to ring her up, she took note of a silvery rod lying on the counter—a contraption Zhane had made use of last night when he'd invited the other Rangers to his shop for an opening day aperitive? "What's this thing?" she asked, pointing to the rod.

"Oh, that? It's a fusel stripper," Zhane explaned. "If you dip it in the wine bottle and open it up, then shake the bottle up a little, it'll filter out most of the fusel oils." At the girl's puzzled look, Zhane continued. "The bad alcohols, like methanol. It makes it easier on your liver so the hangover's not so bad."

"Huh-_uh_," exclaimed the girl. "You're totally kidding!"

"No, I'm not! You know how light or distilled alcohols like beer or vodka usually don't give you as bad of hangovers as wine or dark liquor? It's because of the fusel oils!"

"And this thing actually works?"

"I've used it for years. I promise it works. It's the only way to get them out without distilling and ruining the drink."

"And _you_ invented it?"

"Well… Zhane darted his eyes around. "Not _exactly_." He hadn't gone so low as to start a marketing campaign playing off his Ranger identity and he had no idea whether this young lady was aware of his origins, so he decided to keep mum. "But I'm the first one to have it in the U.S."

And he hadn't even known it before today! The thing was so simple to make, too… how was it possible that they didn't exist on Earth?

"Dude," she said, "if you're the first one, and this thing works, you should _totally_ patent the thing! Then you sell this down near, like, USC and all the big universities, you'll just _take_ over the world with the money you'll make!"

The thought had actually occurred to Zhane once or twice, and he had discussed it with Andros: make and sell Karovan technology on Earth. Actually, that was a bit of what Andros was doing for NASADA. By and large they had decided against selling it independently to the highest bidders, fearing the deontological consequences should Earth become too advanced too quickly, particularly with regards to weapons or surveillance technology.

But something gastronomic such as a little wine contraption… what could be the harm in that?

"When can I buy one?"

"Uh, right now, if you want! I'll sell you this one."

"How much?"

"Umm…" Zhane did some quick calculations in his head. "Five bucks for the stripper. You'll need a few spare cartridges; they get saturated after about three bottles of wine or hard liquor." He reached down below the counter and pulled out the three extra cartridges he had brought along. After doing some more head calculations, he said, "Seventy-five cents apiece."

"Hey, if this thing really works, that is a _deal_," the girl informed him. "I'll take all three."

Zhane rang her up: two bottles of Zinfandel plus one fusel stripper and three fusel stripper cartridges. "Okay, that's $15.25."

The girl handed him her money and collected her bag of merchandise. "I'm gonna try this," she said, "and if it works, I'm gonna come back and tell you, and then I'm gonna tell _all_ my friends, because, seriously…" She shook her head. "This is just _incredible_." She gave him a sassy little wink as she headed toward the door. "I'm Crystal. And you?"

"Zhane."

"Cool. Catch ya later!"

_Crystal_, Zhane pondered, taking note of her swanky walk in a nice pair of blue jeans as she exited. Crystal, just like those crystal blue eyes so sharply set against that soft brown hair…

_Karone!_

Crystal would be back, too. Zhane quickly tried to put both the brunette and the blonde out of his head.

Think about the green. The fusel oil stripper. Cash cow. Fortune. Fast. No cares, no worries: sweeping Karone away on the Silver Cycle whenever he saw fit without any worry for what would be going on back at home…

_Karone._

_Crystal._

_No!_

Oh, dear.

* * *

><p>Two weeks later, Zhane heard the bells sound at the front door of his shop. Looking up from his accounting books, whom should he see but Crystal?<p>

This time, she wore a brown leather jacket that she kept open to show off a blue tank top, slightly lower-cut than the shirt she had worn last time. Zhane noticed as well that her hair was done up with a bit more care than it had been the previous time.

Accompanying Crystal was a blonde girl—looking slightly "squishy" next to her friend, but not really "fat" or even "big-boned." She was cute, and in fact might have been taken for fairly beautiful had she not been standing next to her gorgeous, movie-star-looking friend.

"Hey, Zhane," purred Crystal through her ruby-red painted lips. "Remember me?" She bounced one eyebrow.

"Umm, uh, yeah… Crystal, right?" Zhane acknowledged nervously. She'd remembered his name. The sparks were there. "How's it going?"

What was he to do?

"Oh, my gosh, you remember!" exclaimed Crystal, glancing at her friend, who squealed slightly, before turning back to Zhane. "Oh, this is my friend Clara."

"Hello, Clara" said Zhane.

"Hi!" Clara replied cheerfully.

"So," began Crystal, slinking up to the counter with almost feline grace, "Clara's boyfriend had a little guys-only blow-out at his apartment down at UCLA last weekend…"

"Uh-huh?" Zhane nodded, grinning.

"… lots of rum, brandy, dark whisky, all that great stuff… I'd told them about this," she mentioned as she pointed to a rack near the counter where Zhane was offering a few fusel strippers for sale, "and they said that was the first time in living memory they had gotten up before noon after a night in! So… I'd say you've got a good product!" She tossed her hair back over her shoulder as she finished and leaned upward slightly, showing off a couple products of her own.

"Uhh… umm, great! Wow! Thanks!" exclaimed Zhane, uncomfortable.

It wasn't just the fact that Zhane had no idea where he and Karone stood; it was also the fact that those six months dating Karone had done little to cure him of his hesitant nature vis-à-vis potential mates. A more experienced and more relaxed man—even a very moral one—in the same dating situation could easily have cleared his conscience of any fear that "testing the waters" on a different girl, with his girlfriend having disappeared with the question of return totally up in the air, might be "disloyal."

But Zhane was far from experienced, far from relaxed. He couldn't shake the notion that making a move today, however innocent, would amount to total and permanent rupture with Karone, and even had he been able to resign himself to losing Andros's sister, he might not have found the words to say to this girl standing here. Same reason Karone had been the one to invite _him_ to dinner that first day she'd appeared to him as Karone—when she was still normally Astronema. Couldn't figure out what was going on. Couldn't wrap his mind around the situation and take control.

"So," Crystal continued, putting an elbow on the counter, "we're definitely spreading the word, and you'll definitely be seeing volume."

Zhane chuckled a bit. "Wow," he murmured. "Thanks!"

"How 'bout some more cartridges?" she asked provocatively.

"Uh, sure! Sure, no problem!" Zhane reached over to the rack nearby and pulled out five. "How many?"

"Five's good. Good round number," said Crystal, still holding a smile but beginning to look slightly confused and disappointed as Zhane rang her up. After paying the three dollars and seventy-five cents, she backed away just a little. "Umm, see you later?" she said, speaking more softly than she had.

"Of-of course!"

"Okay. Bye," Crystal murmured, waving, a little bit sadly.

"Bye," echoed Carla, a little more enthusiastically.

As soon as he heard their car speed off, Zhane realized just how idiotic he'd acted to her. She'd wanted him to ask her out.

Or… maybe this was good. Maybe she was so disappointed he wouldn't have to worry about the quandary anymore?

He slouched on the counter and let out a huge sigh. Perhaps it was fitting that he hated to have anyone else control his life: he seemed unable to control anything but himself.

The telephone jolted Zhane out of his thoughts. "Hello? Hey, Andros—WHAT?" Nervously, he glanced at the clock. "Yeah, I close at eight… definitely, stop by!"

* * *

><p>"Any sign of contact yet?" Zhane asked nervously when Andros arrived at seven-thirty.<p>

His friend shook his head. "The last reporting transmission we received from Terra Venture was this morning. Normally she'd beam a status and location every half-hour."

"Wh-what were their last coordinate?" Zhane asked nervously, his heart pounding. Andros handed him a piece of paper, which he looked over carefully. "That's nowhere near _anything_ we know!" He looked up. "Nothing from… one of the black boxes, even?"

Andros shook his head again. "Nothing at all. Terra Venture's totally vanished from the reachable universe."

"Was it next to a black hole?"

Again, Andros shook his head.

"Well, we—" Zhane began, but paused when a customer came up to pay. Once the transaction was finished and the customer was gone, he spoke up. There was no longer any need to talk quietly. "Andros, what are we going to do?"

* * *

><p>There was only one thing to do, and that was to embark on the three-hour-long Galaxy Glider trip out to the sector where Terra Venture had last been spotted. And that was exactly what they did. Remembering Zhane's advice, Andros had left without telling Ashley where they were going. Why bother worrying her? Besides, they'd only be gone a few hours.<p>

Alas, they found nothing. Nothing at all. Not even a trace. Not even an energy signature. And so they returned home at three-thirty that morning, exhausted and perturbed.

The night was difficult and the next day at work even more difficult for both Rangers. Yet when they were back at their shared apartment by 8:45 PM that Thursday night, neither one was about to fall asleep.

They just sat there in the living room, Zhane on the sofa and Andros in an easy chair, the TV on but neither paying any attention. It just helped them to feel as though there were other people creating ambiance in the room. They hadn't told the others yet what had happened.

"When should we tell them?" asked Zhane.

"As soon as possible," said Andros.

"What could've happened?"

"No idea." Andros drew a knee up to his chest. "You know, for the last four and a half months all I could let myself hope was that Karone had made it to Terra Venture and everything was okay there. And now… I'm hoping she's been kidnapped and is being held hostage somewhere someone'll find her eventually."

_Karone._ Images of Karone flashed through Zhane's mind, and then suddenly popped one of… Crystal. His face scrunched up as he mentally pounded himself for having dared to think about another girl at such a time. Quickly he covered his face.

"You okay?" Andros asked.

"Yeah," Zhane lied. "Do you think we should go looking for Karone?"

"The most we could do is ask around on the allied planets—Aquitar, Eltar, Inquiry, Kerova, Kerovan Outposts, Triforia… and if they haven't heard any news about her, the only ones who would know anything would be either the Galaxy Rangers or the hostile underworld…"

"We've _got_ to try. Andros, the MegaShip is still out there, remember? Maybe it's in a lost sector or something, but… if the Mega Accelerator were disabled or destroyed you wouldn't be able to morph!"

Andros nodded. "I know. Today I talked to General Norquist about a pre-rescue scouting mission. I'll talk to him tomorrow and try to get his support for an all-Ranger mission. We'll have to be looking for evidence of Terra Venture as well if we're going to be able to get NASADA support… and after that little trip I think we'll both want transportation and arsenal on a larger scale than Galaxy Gliders."

"So I'll have to close down the shop for two or three weeks at least," Zhane sighed. Right before Christmas, too. "Shouldn't have changed jobs so quickly."

* * *

><p>A week and a half later, a breezy but palatable morning greeted three runners as they entered Angel Grove Park at 7:00.<p>

"_I don't know but I've been told…_" Rocky began singing. After a few seconds, it became clear his running companions weren't going to follow suit. "Hey, guys! What about the song?"

"It's okay, Rocky. I don't know about Carlos, but I'm not much of a pop star," remarked Adam, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead.

"No, me neither," admitted Carlos, huffing and puffing as they trotted along the paths.

Since the beginning of the semester, Carlos and T.J. had been running with Rocky and Adam twice a week, Tuesday and Friday morning. It was the start of the two-week final exam stretch, however, and on this particular Tuesday morning, T.J. was absent still cramming for a chemistry final as a holdover from last night.

All the Space Rangers would be finishing their final exams by Thursday at noon, however, having received special derogations from AGU thanks to NASADA intervention. For on Friday morning the Galactic Voyager I would be ready for launch, and the Rangers would head back into space for the medium haul.

First stop, however, would be KO-35. The Voyager was a decent feat for a Terran ship, but it would need major modifications to its accelerator in order to travel efficiently—a voyage to KO-35 would take four days on the Astro MegaShip without the Mega Accelerator turned up high—otherwise, it would take mere hours, as it would on Galaxy Gliders—but the Voyager would never be able to do the trip faster than three weeks. They'd also be installing a Syntetron, since there was no way to tell how reliable the food supply would be if they had to venture too far away from friendly civilized systems.

For Carlos, the prospect of spending Christmas away from his siblings was a bit rough to swallow. He suspected Ashley felt much the same, though of course being with Andros tended to soften the blow for her.

Carlos, however, felt this reality weigh heavily on his mind as they dashed through these familiar grounds that day.

Something about this park seemed cursed. Monsters had loved to attack it back in the days of the UAE, and as Zhane had discovered just slightly over six months earlier, strange spacecraft.

One such spacecraft was now hurling toward Earth and made a nice splash-down just a hundred meters off the path. Considering how far it had undoubtedly come, the landing was incredibly soft, but it was still powerful enough for the heat waves from the impact to hit the runners pretty noticeably.

"Ouch!" exclaimed Rocky. "What the heck?"

"C'mon, let's go check it out!" Adam prodded. And so, off they went.

Indented in the terrain was a relatively small spacecraft, but considering how hard it had landed a great deal—indeed, the majority—of it was still above ground level. Eerie clanking noises sounded as the top half of the ship lifted off and steam poured out.

The three Rangers watched in awe as first one hand, then two, then four reached up from inside the spacecraft. A tarp-looking thing was thrown off, revealing two unfamiliar hominids: one man and one woman.

"Oh, I have a headache!" the woman moaned. Then she looked up at the three astonished boys standing above them. "AAAAAAAAA! WAKE UP, MUSCLEHEAD; THE POWER PUKES ARE UPON US!"

"What?" exclaimed the man. Looking up, he too cried, "AAAAAAAAA!"

"RRRRUUUUNNNN!"

Immediately the pair scrambled out of the spacecraft and began dashing away, as fast as they could. Bewildered but by instinct suspicious, the three Rangers chased after them.

Of course, the odd couple was so disoriented from the long intergalactic flight and so flustered from their close encounter of the third kind that they were scarcely in any shape to run coherently. And so, once they lost their footing at the top of a hill and went tumbling down, the Rangers easily caught up to and surrounded them.

"Oh, please, have mercy!" begged the woman, getting up to her knees and planting her head on the ground.

"Please! oh, please, Rangers, don't kill us!" the man supplicated.

"I don't believe it," exclaimed Adam. "Are you… Rita?"

"Rita?" exclaimed Rocky. "But then, he'd be… Zedd?"

"But… but _how_?" said Carlos.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	6. Quick Decisions

_**The Ones I Love  
><strong>_Part V: Quick Decisions  
><strong>by MegaSilver<strong>

Andros and Zhane were working overtime to get everything ready for the trip on Friday, and it hadn't been easy to slip away discreetly without letting NASADA know what they were up to. But they definitely had to see what was the deal with Zedd and Rita—and they simply had no way of knowing what the U.S. government would have in store for that duo.

They had managed to sneak the two into an on-site medical facility at NASADA. While Zhane performed checkups in the examination room, Andros, Carlos, Rocky and Adam waited around a table in a conference room.

"They said they'd come from where?" asked Andros.

"They didn't," answered Carlos. "But we managed to fish this out of the ship."

Carlos slid a small, ornately-decorated box over to Andros, who opened it up. His jaw went slack as he eyed the contents. "It's pure gold!"

"What?" exclaimed Rocky, sliding over to get a look.

Indeed, it was: gold coins of the purest grade, just the size of the Power Coins of old, struck with the Triforian royal insignium. At a brief glance there appeared to be a couple hundred of them in there. Andros picked up a coin and balanced it in his hand. It probably weighed about two ounces.

Clipped onto the inside of the lid was a folded piece of paper. Andros pulled it out and unfolded it as the others leaned in closer to get a good look. It appeared to be some sort of message written in otherworldly script.

"What's that?" asked Adam.

"It's Triforian script," explained Andros.

"Triforia?"

"No way!" exclaimed Rocky. "It's from Trey?"

"Triforian?" Carlos looked puzzled. "Who's Trey?"

"The prince of the planet Triforia," said Andros. "The Gold Ranger."

"Ahhhhh."

"He fought alongside us back in early 1997," explained Adam.

"Really?" Andros raised an eyebrow. "Trey came to Earth?"

"Only for a short time."

"Ah." Andros nodded. "The Triforians stopped making regular peacekeeping assist rounds about a hundred years ago after a team of space pirates tried to loot their gold supply; they sealed off landing and takeoff from the planet. But the royal family still gets out when they can." He pored over the gold coins for a few second.

"So gold is a valid currency in space?" Rocky asked.

"Oh, you bet," confirmed Andros. "Back on KO-35 we had major asteroid gold mining operations; there's a few with some pretty heavy veins inside. It's formed in a very particulate manner during supernova nucleosynthesis, and when planets are formed the gold tends to sink into the core, so it's not really abundant in almost any approachable place in the universe—and apart from crafting very small conduction devices to the Morphin' Grid it's not particularly industrial, so it's a pretty popular value reference everywhere.

"But somehow Triforia got a ton of the stuff." Andros handled another coin.

"So what's the message say?" Carlos asked.

Andros looked at the letter once again. "The signature's pretty clear: it's Trey, all right. I'm not really that strong in Triforian script, though; I think Zhane still reads it better than I do. We'll have to wait till he gets done." As Andros spoke, Zhane walked into the room.

"Speak of the devil!" exclaimed Rocky.

Zhane didn't seem to hear the former Red/Blue Ranger. "Well, I'll run blood tests just to be sure of everything, but from what I can see they're in good health. Anatomically they seem to be just _homo sapiens sapiens_, somewhere around age 40. I can't make out any obvious speciation difference along the lines of _homo sapiens aquitarianus _or _homo sapiens triforianus_, but I'll wait for the DNA analysis to confirm. I tried a hotwire with my Digimorpher to see if they were conducting any Morphin' energy or magic; without the visualization equipment on the MegaShip I can't be sure, but it doesn't seem as though they have anything they could throw at us if they wanted to."

"Did they say anything?" Andros asked.

Zhane shrugged, found an empty seat and slouched a bit. A lot, actually. "They didn't really want to talk. Seemed a bit anxious; their hearts were going around 120 to 125 the whole time."

"Hey," Andros interjected, "look what they fished out of the spacecraft with those two." He slid the box over to Zhane.

"Wow!" exclaimed Zhane in awe at the gold. "Mother _lode_!"

"Can you still read Triforian script?"

"Barely. Why? Is this from Triforia?"

"It would seem so," explained Andros, handing Zhane the letter.

Zhane squinted a bit as he tried to make out the words.

"_Rangers of Earth,_

"_We, Trey of Wisdom, Trey of Courage and Trey of Heart, Prince of Triforia and Gold Ranger, send you our warmest greetings. We hope that you are well in these new times we live in._

"_Doubtlessly Zedd and Rita are now among your company. We found them on Triforia just after the war ended, but unfortunately we were unable to attend to their needs on our planet as our justice system and the political indignation over the invasion would have led to a swift end to the two."_

"And that's not good enough for them?" Rocky remarked sarcastically.

Zhane continued:

"_Certainly you all witnessed the last of Zordon's energy tearing across the universe and ending the fight as he passed away."_

Zhane stopped for a moment, looked at Andros and winced in apologetic shame.

"_The wave, as you surely know by now, didn't, couldn't end evil in the universe, but it did stop the war with the UAE and dispensed justice to the great majority of the perpetrators. But it seems a few of them were spared. We cannot really know exactly why, but there must be a reason. And since they no longer have magic power, it is difficult to imagine how they might be a threat. We thought it best to avoid submitting them to the forces of justice on this matter._

"_Despite their anatomy, e could not see them blending into the Karova system. It was thus that I chose to send them to Earth._

"_They'll have to learn how to get by largely on their own. Even so, I understand that this represents a burden on you, to help them on their way, but I ask you to please do so, for my sake, as a favor, as friends, as fellow Rangers. This is simply one good deed I am simply not well-equipped to do._

"_As a gesture of my appreciation, I have sent you this gift, these 200 pieces of Triforian gold coins. Please ensure that half of this gold goes to helping Zedd and Rita."_

"Aww, dammit," Zhane swore sarcastically.

"_The other half is yours, to dispense with as you please. However, I strongly advise you to conserve six to ten coins for safe keeping. For although the universe is, largely thanks to you, a much safer place, anything may happen, and you may one day find it useful to strike and charge these into Power Coins._

"_Please understand as well that we, Trey of Triforia, stand ready and willing to deliver any and all necessary assistance at a moment's notice. Although Triforia can no longer be as open as she once could, know—in case you ever doubted—that our home will always be open to you._

"_Yours faithfully,  
>Trey of Triforia<em>

"_Wisdom, Courage, Heart"_

Zhane grinned mischievously. "What is it about royals always referring to themselves in the first person plural when they write?"

"He's got three personalities," remarked Adam.

"I know, but everywhere you go in the universe if you read something from royalty it's the same way. They'll use 'we' and not 'I.'"

Andros changed the subject. "Well, we've got a lot to figure out about this."

"Yeah," concurred Zhane, "like how to divvy up those hundred gold coins. We don't have to tell anyone else, do we?" He saw Rocky laugh at that, and the two shared a knowing grin.

"Okay," Andros chuckled. "But seriously, guys, we can't let this get out. I can only imagine the kind of prosecution those two would be facing here."

Carlos looked skeptical. "So we're gonna help them?"

"Well, yeah!" Adam pronounced. "Trey did so much for us, we can't just ignore his letter!"

"Plus, Zordon's wave stopped short of killing them," Andros added. "Trey was right: there must have been a reason, but stopping the UAE apparently didn't require killing them off.

"But why not, when so many of the others were killed of?" Zhane asked.

Andros shook his head and shrugged. "Couldn't say."

"Okay, I get the idea," Carlos conceded. "But, look. Concretely, what do we do? Andros, Zhane, we're supposed to leave Earth in just three days!"

Andros turned to Rocky and Adam. "Guys, do you think you can hold them down for a couple months and maybe start trying to get them on track while we're gone? I know it's a lot to ask, but…"

Adam and Rocky looked at each other and winced. Then Rocky asked, "Well, where are we going to put them where we can keep an eye on them?"

"Our apartment, maybe?" suggested Zhane. "It's really close by here and neither of us'll be there for a couple of months."

"Ugh," remarked Andros, "you want to put Zedd and Rita up at our place?"

"Ugh, good point. But what else could we do?"

Andros thought for a moment. "I don't have any better ideas." He took a deep breath as he turned back to Rocky and Adam. "Someone would need to be staying in there with them to make sure they keep themselves under control—and don't try to run away to do anything funny. Are you up for it?"

Adam looked at Rocky.

Rocky began nodding slowly. "Hey… sensible lodging with my own room for a couple months… not a bad deal!"

Rocky, like Carlos and Ashley, had an abundance of siblings, but unlike those two he had never lived away from home and unlike Ashley he had never had his own bedroom. Not that he disliked his family, but that kind of proximity could become very grating from time to time.

"But what about the secrecy?" asked Adam. "I mean, if I'm gonna be helping out, Tanya's going to find out anyway, and besides, she might be able to help."

"Okay." Andros put his hands on the table. "Let's get this clear once and for all. Adam, you tell Tanya. Zhane, Carlos and I will tell T.J., Ashley and Cassie; they deserve to know and they'd eventually find out anyway. But no one else knows."

"You're right," agreed Adam. "Imagine if Tommy found out."

"Oh, man!" Rocky rolled his eyes. "He'd be on a plane back from England and he'd stick us all up to the neck in wet cement!" A bit of an exaggeration, but it definitely wasn't a stretch to suggest Tommy would be hard-pressed to agree with Trey on the merits of rehabilitating Zedd and Rita or to accept that they were alive because Zordon would have wanted it and not because of some freak accident, especially considering the way he had reacted when Andros had told him about Zordon. Neither Rocky, nor Adam, nor Tanya, nor Katherine—nor, so far as they knew, any of the Rangers who still kept in touch with the Olivers—had brought up Zordon's death to Tommy since then. Except perhaps…

Suddenly a new name popped into Rocky's mind. "Hey, guys, what about Jason? I mean, he'd understand!"

"He's too close to Tommy," objected Adam.

"Besides," said Andros, "we're already nine to know. Just us nine, like we agreed, and it stays among us nine. Everyone clear?"

"You're not gonna tell General Norquist?" Carlos asked in surprise. When Andros shook his head, Carlos protested, "But he's done so much for us, for you! And he could probably help!"

"Too risky," said Andros. "I don't think he'll understand the whole Zordon thing and he works for the U.S. government. Until we figure out what to do, we can't be dealing with any official channels."

"Just don't tell _anyone_ except for T.J., Ashley, Cassie and Tanya," Zhane offered. "Period." For once, Zhane, grand master of the complication, had managed to simplify something.

"Right?" asked Andros, looking at Carlos.

"Right, man," Carlos agreed.

"Right?" Andros looked Rocky in the eye.

"Right."

"Right, Adam."

"No one but Tanya," said Adam. "You all have my word."

"Okay."

* * *

><p>"Rocky," said Adam when they were in the car headed back to campus to start working on a sports medicine final, "am I the only one, or are also you having second thoughts about not telling Tommy and the others?"<p>

"I don't know," sighed Rocky. "I mean, look… it's not as though _we're_ the current team of Rangers. It's not Tommy's responsibility to take charge."

Adam knew Rocky wasn't as close to Tommy as he was himself, but still he felt they ought to retain at least basic loyalty to their former—their first, their only—team leader. "Yeah, but… something about it kind of seems as though we're breaking faith with Tommy."

"So you're saying we should break faith with Andros?"

Adam pondered that for a moment. "Well, we haven't known Andros nearly as long. He's never led us in battle. But we _did_ promise to keep the secret."

"It'll be really tough to talk Andros out of it." That was quite an astute observation. Rocky didn't know Andros very well, but he certainly knew how he would have felt being in Andros's position that day almost a year ago, Tommy's reaction. Tommy had, to his own credit, not stooped to vulgarity or profanity, but his words had been harsh, and Andros had not left them on friendly terms.

"I guess it'd be fitting though," added Adam, "considering it'll have been one year almost to the day we got the bad news… and then Tommy and Katherine get the weird news." He took a deep breath and tapped a bit on the steering wheel. "I'll call Carlos and get Andros's number when we get back to campus. At least they'll be off the Earth when Tommy and Katherine get back for Christmas."

London was turning out to be very difficult for both Tommy and Katherine due to the long night and weekend hours Katherine put in for ballet performances—not to mention her bimonthly trips abroad—, Tommy's general discomfort with Londonian socializing norms and the high cost of living that constricted their ability to save. So Katherine had looked for and found a post in Los Angeles, and at the end of the year they would be moving into a recently vacated Santa Monica apartment owned by Tommy's uncle John. For them, it was definitely a win-win situation: less than an hour and fifteen minutes from Angel Grove outside rush hour and far more conveniently situated for trips to Australia. Tommy had also dropped hints that he was planning to get back into racing once they returned.

"Just make sure Tanya knows she doesn't talk to Katherine about it before that," Rocky warned. "Kat finds out, Tommy finds out."

"Exactly."

* * *

><p>Wednesday morning, however, before Adam had even gotten the chance to get ahold of Andros, Zhane was about halfway through loading up his wine stock into egg-crate cartons to haul down to the climate-controlled storage center when he head the familiar hum of a powerful airborne surfboard cut through the air outside his shop. He turned to see, much to his surprise, the Red Ranger jumping off his Galaxy Glider and to hear, muted through the glass panes, "Power Down!" He watched as Andros burst into the store, grinning wildly. "Zhane, you're not gonna believe this."<p>

"What's up?"

"This morning, we got the signal back from Terra Venture."

"_What?_" Zhane began panting with excitement and dropped the inventory list in his hand. "You mean—"

Andros nodded. "They're back! I guess they were sequestered in a back-door sector or something, but they've broken free! And they're sending the manual signals now!"

Zhane began to laugh out loud. "So we're staying!"

"We're staying!"

"And they're alive!"

"WHOOOOOOOOOO!" the two men cheered, hooting like schoolboys on retreat running away from the chaperons into the woods.

"Friday night, dinner party at our house!" Zhane announced, rummaging around for some Champagne bottles.

"Oh, _yeah_!"

* * *

><p>That afternoon, Andros was called into Commander Norquist's office to discuss the next step, now that the mission would not be taking place.<p>

"We should get back to work researching the Galactic Voyager's accelerator," opined Andros. "I think there's still enough room left to optimize it to about double the speed on present technology without resorting to Karovan imports."

Commander Norquist nodded in agreement. "There's something else I'd like to discuss first, though."

"What's that?"

"Why you thought you ought to keep this business about Zedd and Rita from me." Commander Norquist was looking Andros directly in the eye.

Andros opened his mouth but no words came out.

Commander Norquist continued. "I was in the medical bunker yesterday morning. I overheard your conversation. Why did you feel you needed to keep this a secret?"

Andros was doing his best to keep cool as he searched for the words to explain. "Look," he said, "I was a Power Ranger before I came here. My friends were. I'm not a Ranger as a part of NASADA. A old friend wanted me, in my capacity as a Ranger, to help them. I owed it to him. It's really hard to explain, but he was so important to us: if it weren't for him, we wouldn't have become Power Rangers in the first place! But I didn't know what the U.S. government would try to do to them if—"

"And who might this friend be?" Commander Norquist interrupted. "What's his name?"

"Zordon. Zordon of Eltar."

Commander Norquist raised an eyebrow. "I might have suspected as much. After all, he was the one who gave me the redesign for the Mega Shuttle."

Andros's eyes went wide at that news. "What? But how?"

"Back in mid-1997, right after I'd been appointed Commander of NASADA, a messenger came from Eltar to open up a temporary communications portal. Zordon spoke to me through it and warned me that a coalition of evil forces including all the past and present invaders—and then some—was cutting through the universe and that they believed the Power Rangers to be the Earth's last line of defense. He told me that if the Rangers should be stripped of their powers and need to evacuate, they'd need a hidden evacuation route of escape the invaders wouldn't expect—and the messenger gave me a series of plans and energizers to modify the prototype assault shuttle to link up with the Rangers of Karova."

"The Mega Shuttle," exclaimed Andros in a whisper. "Why didn't you tell me? How was I supposed to know you were with Zordon and not the U.S. government?"

Commander Norquist leaned forward. "Andros, I've gotten to know you over the last year, and much as I know you love your friends, and indeed people in general, you have a trust problem. You come to trust people only slowly and reluctantly, despite everything suggesting that you can and should compliment them with your trust. Why didn't you trust that if I would listen to a young child I'd never met who had an urgent message from the Power Rangers and even allow him unquestioned use of a government assault craft that I knew what was going on and what was at stake?"

Andros slouched a bit. Commander Norquist was right. The problem was more general than simply a problem with the women in his life. He'd been reluctant to take on the new Rangers; he'd castigated Zhane for nonexistent sparks between Silver and Yellow; he'd kept Karone so tightly next to him and discouraged Zhane from getting close… and he'd mistrusted Commanger Norquist, the man whom Zordon had seen fit to confide the salutary key the Terran Rangers' mission.

The only person he'd actually trusted had been, ironically, Karone—and before she had even deserved it.

As Andros thought about all that, Commander Norquist continued. "I'm in this with you, Andros. I helped lobby for this. You know as well as I do how sceptical the East Coast is still: the federal government could well ruin the entire thing for politics' sake. We have to keep them placated and at the same time keep ourselves running on whatever we have to to fulfil the mission. I need to be in the loop or I can't help you."

Andros nodded slowly. Yes, Earth was technologically backwards, but he had been mistaken to take Terrans for on average less intelligent humans. Well, maybe in terms of IQ they were a few points lower, but there were definitely some bright people. In any event any sort of condescending _I-know-best _approach wouldn't do.

"That said," finished Commander Norquist, "I should have told you about Zordon. So I'd say we're about even." He stood up, escorted Andros out the door and began walking with him back to the Control Room. "On the whole, though, I never have regretted joining with you."

The two men shook hands, and Andros pondered as well how much of a relief it would be to tell Tommy about the present situation and be free of all the secrets and mistrust.

Things might turn out all right after all.

* * *

><p>Alas!<p>

The phone was ringing off the hook when Zhane entered his shop at 8:00 AM on Friday morning. _Who on Earth would be ringing at this time?_ He picked up the phone. "Zhany Tannin Wines: this is Zhane; how may I help you?"

"Zhane, it's Andros."

"Andros?" This was very strange. Usually Andros would have called via Astro Morpher-Digimorpher lines. "How come you're calling on the landlines?"

"Our Astro Morphers are down."

"What?" Then, Zhane's heart sank. He had a feeling he knew what was going on. "You mean—"

"I got into work at seven this morning. The distress signals began beaming out at three o'clock and gave out around four. We're still picking up signals, but only from one dome. We've got nothing but black box signals from the other two—or from the MegaShip."

So that was it. The Astro Morphers no longer worked, and that could only mean the Mega Accelerator—and in all probability, the MegaShip—had been pulverized.

_And whatever was inside._

"Look," said Zhane, "I've got a supplier coming in at two this afternoon. As soon as he leaves I'll close up and get into NASADA headquarters."

"I'll call the other Rangers in the meantime."

"See you guys later." Zhane hung up and, flustered, bewildered and frightened, began opening shop.

* * *

><p>Around 1:00 PM, the door flung open. Crystal entered, followed by a tall, readheaded young man with pale skin, freckles and green eyes. "Hey," she said, a small but unpretentious smile on her face.<p>

"Hey, Crystal." Zhane forced a smile of his own.

"Oh, umm, Zhane, this is my boyfriend, Rory. I just told him about those amazing—whatchamacallits?"

"Fusel strippers." Zhane regarded Crystal and her probably new boyfriend. What was he supposed to be feeling right now? Sadness? Regret? Stupidity? Guilt?

And to what end? Sadness over losing Karone? Regret and stupidity for not letting her go and lose any potential chance with Crystal? Guilt for even thinking about another woman in another time like this?

_No_, he told himself. _Karone can't be lost. That's just stupid thinking._

"Yeah," said Rory in a deep but friendly voice, "they sound _amazing_! Could I get three of 'em?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, sure!" Zhane fished one out, along with a few cartridges. "How many spare cartridges?"

"I think… oh, three dozen. Two of them are Christmas presents."

"Good call!" exclaimed Zhane as he rung them up.

"Hey, you raised the price!" Crystal noticed. The display rack read _$10.00_, double the amount Crystal had paid for her own. "Good call for you."

Zhane shook his head. "Not for you guys. That's forty-two in all."

"Aww!" cooed Crystal. "That's so sweet!"

"Hey, well, you gave me the idea."

As Rory fished out his wallet, he took a closer look at Zhane. "Say, aren't you one of the Power Rangers?"

Zhane's eyes widened and he put a finger to his lips. "Don't tell anyone!" he whispered loudly.

"Well, I'm sure lots of people figure it out."

"A few, I guess."

"I thought you might be," Crystal piped up. "I didn't want to say anything; I thought you might think of me as like, some flightly little nerd or something."

"Ahh." Zhane waved a hand. "Nah, it's just a little more attention than we'd like sometimes, but it's fun."

Actually, Zhane would have positively loved flashing his face around everywhere and exploiting the opportunity for speaking engagements, but he and the other Rangers had agreed they would, out of respect for Zordon's memory and of course for basic human decency, avoid such flamboyance. Not, of course, that they were averse to occasional self-indulgences, so long as those remained strictly private.

"Well, you guys were awesome," said Rory, placing the money on the counter and picking up the sack with his purchase. "Hey, thanks for this."

"Thank you for coming in. Need any wine to go with it?"

"Nah… we're doing hard tonight. But we'll be back!" Rory assured him, holding up his index finger. "Powered up and ready."

"Take care!" Zhane bade the couple. Once they were gone, he slouched on the counter and let out a long sigh.

_Life and all its random story arcs._

He glanced at his watch. _C'mon, delivery truck, get here._

* * *

><p>"More bad news," announced Andros as Zhane entered the Control Room at NASADA. The other Rangers were already there, as was Commander Norquist. "The signals from the last dome have disappeared. Nothing but black box transmission."<p>

Zhane's heart dipped only a little bit at that news. It could only make things slightly more distressing. On the other hand, it also made the chances of survivors exponentially lower.

_If Karone made it there, she'll have become a Power Ranger_, he told himself. The odds of surviving a catastrophe were always higher when you took a little Morphin' power into account.

Commander Norquist spoke up. "Zhane, Andros tells me your Morphin' powers aren't connected through the Mega Accelerator. Do they still work?"

"They should." Zhane took a deep breath. "Only one way to find out," he said, pulling out his Digimorpher. No need to fear about indiscretion: these were all former colleagues in the Control Room. He tapped in M-E-G-A and seconds later, the Silver Ranger stood before them. "Well, at least we've got this much left!" He took off his helmet.

"The Silver Ranger was the prototype design for the other Rangers," explained Andros. "But they kept tinkering with the design after they created the final five and they actually managed to improve on it, so they assigned a team of six Rangers."

"Do you think we can use it as a prototype to rebuild the other Rangers' powers?" Commander Norquist asked.

Andros pursed his lips together. "Maybe." Then he remembered the gold Trey had sent. Perhaps they could use that to modify their Astro Morphers to hook directly into the Morphin' Grid. But of course they'd still need to copy the energy signature or the gold would be useless.

"We don't have time," Zhane insisted. "I've got to go find the survivors."

"How could there have been survivors?" Cassie wondered aloud.

"The shuttles."

"Wouldn't we have heard from them?"

"No," explained Commander Norquist. "The shuttles have much lower ranges of communication; if they're still around, we most certainly wouldn't have heard from them. They were near at least a few planets right before the ship went." He handed Zhane a sheet of paper with the coordinates. "If one of them happened to be habitable, there may be cause for at least a small amount of hope."

Andros was nervous, but he took all of the doubt, all of the fear, all of the anxiety brewing inside and swallowed it for one second. "There were Power Rangers on Terra Venture. They'd do everything and anything to make sure those people stayed alive."

He didn't say that with quite the confidence that his predecessor and antagonistic ally Tommy would have, but it was a fine effort.

"Zhane," said Comander Norquist, "can I count on you to go for a pre-rescue scouting mission? At the least we need to know if there's anyone to salvage. I don't know whether we'd have the means to bring them all back before 2004, but if the planet's habitable, we wouldn't need to. But with the new capital destroyed they may well be in need of technological provisions."

Zhane nodded. "Count on me."

"The next optimal point for a launch won't come before Monday morning."

"I'm not waiting for it. I'm going right now, on the Galaxy Glider."

"Zhane, are you sure?" Ashley piped up. "It's kind of far without any food!"

"If the coordinates of the black boxes are right, it's only four and a half hours. I'll slip some energy bars and coffee in the compartment, just in case. But if one of the planets _is_ habitable I'll be able to pull some food."

Ashley winced. "On a strange planet? Be careful, Zhane! You never know about poisonous plants and such."

"Hey." Zhane thumped his chest. "I'm a doctor, remember?"

* * *

><p>Down on the runway, Commander Norquist and the Rangers each said goodbye to Zhane in turn. Andros was last, and he took Zhane aside, just a few feet away.<p>

"Karone had to have made it," said Andros. "I just know it. Everything she's been through: she's so much stronger than I gave her credit for this year. We always dreamed of being Rangers. I _know_ she is one now."

Zhane nodded. "I've known ever since she left she would be," he said. "I've always believed in her."

"I know. And thank you… for believing in my sister. No one else did. Not even me, not at first. I'll never forget that. And…" He inhaled deeply. "Zhane, you don't know what it means to me that I can't go with you to look for her. I'm scared and for the first time in years I'm totally helpless.

"But I think it's for the better. I think you _needed_ to be the one to go. There's no one in the universe I'd trust more to find her and protect her than you." He pulled his Battlizer off his wrist and handed it to his best friend. "Just in case."

"Thanks, Andros," Zhane spoke slowly before giving his best friend a bear hug. "There's more than enough room for two on my Glider. I'll find Karone and bring her home. I promise."

"I believe in you."

"All right." Zhane stepped a few feet back and took one last look at his friends before clicking his helmet back on and calling out, "Silver Cycle!"

A powerful shiny bike rolled up swiftly and the Silver Ranger jumped on without the cycle even needing to slow down. He continued up the runway, accelerating until, about two-thirds of the way through, he hopped up onto the seat with his feet and spread his arms steadily as the bike Morphed into its Galaxy Glider form.

The shimmering silver vehicle continued to accelerate and to gain altitude and angle until it shot up out of the sight of the other Rangers.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

_**Author's Note: **__I will explain where Zedd and Rita went in the next part, as it is actually not that important and would have been distracting to this part. Don't worry. No Deus ex machina._


	7. Lost, Found and Lost Again

_**The Ones I Love  
><strong>_Part VI: Lost, Found and Lost Again  
><strong>by MegaSilver<strong>

Ashley put a hand to Andros's shoulder. "Don't worry, Andros. He'll be back in a couple of days at the most."

Andros put his arm around Ashley's waist. "I know that, hon," he sighed. "But since it's my sister I'm obligated to worry."

"Hey, Ashley," Cassie piped up, "we really need to get back."

Ashley made a face. "Yeah. Gotta make sure the dynamic duo hasn't done anything stupid back at the apartment."

With the Kerovas' apartment _not_ being vacated in the short term, Ashley and Cassie were playing reluctant hostesses to Zedd and Rita. The boys had argued that it made sense, since Karone's old bedroom was now vacant and no one else had a spare room. Naturally, they were hiding the gold elsewhere—just so those two wouldn't try to pull a dumb escape before they knew what they were doing.

"_Yeah, real sweet deal, 'honey,'_" Ashley had muttered sarcastically to Andros. "_You and Zhane get the gold; Cassie and I get Zedd and Rita!_"

So far it hadn't been quite so bad as one might have legitimately feared. The couple kept mostly to themselves, though they could still occasionally be rather irritating, particularly if they were up quarrelling late at night—in the bedroom right next to Ashley's.

"Hey," said Ashley now, poking Andros and whispering, "speaking of those two, are we still gonna do dinner at your place tonight? I mean, we don't have to drink the Champagne without Zhane, but we had planned on using the night to, you know… try to help them fit back in and…"

"I guess," said Andros. "Seven o'clock. You still got the key, right? I don't think I'll be in before seven-thirty."

"Yeah, I do."

"Okay. See you tonight."

* * *

><p>About an hour into the hyperfast voyage, Zhane's adrenaline had slowed considerably and reality was beginning to set in.<p>

He'd promised to bring Karone back. But what if her mission as a Power Ranger weren't over yet?

Zhane couldn't stay and help the Rangers where they were, either, for if the Terran Rangers saw no sign of him by Tuesday they would prepare to leave on the original mission on Thursday.

Anxieties about the many possible wild scenarios at least ensured the Silver Ranger would remain wide awake for the entirety of this long journey.

* * *

><p>Squeezing in tightly but comfortably around the dining table in the Karovas' apartment, the five Astro Rangers, Zedd and Rita passed around spaghetti with meatballs and Italian-style aubergines as Andros opened up a bottle of red Salice Salentino wine from Bari—"<em>I keep hearing 'Chianti' with Italian food<em>," Zhane had said when Andros and Ashley had shown him the menu, "_but to be honest I like this stuff better for tomato sauces._"

Rita poked a little bit at one of the three giant meatballs on the mountain of pasta piled onto her plate. "It's… what?"

"Pork," explained Ashley.

"Pig?" Zedd leaned in and sniffed. "Humans. _So_ unimaginative."

"Ah, thanks, Zedd," said Cassie through gritted teeth, imagining what Zedd might have to tell about his own favorite dishes. "Don't really want to know."

"Sorry," muttered the ex-Emperor of Evil, picking up his fork.

"Besides, you guys are human, too, now, apparently," added Andros.

"Humph. Don't remind me," Zedd growled.

"Say," sounded Rita, changing the subject, "where's that bleach-blond Silver guy?"

Andros chortled. "Umm… Zhane's not a bleach-blond."

"Oh, yeah? How do _you_ know?"

"Yeah, Andros," teased Ashley, "how _do_ you know?"

Andros laughed. "Come on, guys; I've known Zhane for well over a decade! If he _were_ a bleach blond, I don't know how he would have kept it hidden on the MegaShip all that time."

"Seriously, though," said Cassie, "_no guy_ has that color hair as an adult."

"Well, okay… maybe in the Karova system there's just a few different inconsequential color mutations floating around the gene pool. So what?"

Ashley held up a lock of Andros's long, blond-and-brunette striped hair. "And I guess that explains _your_ hair, as well?"

"It does, actually!"

"Uh-huh." Carlos nodded with exaggerated movements, rolling his eyes.

"No, I swear, it does! Really, I've never used color or bleach in my life!"

"Just like Karone, huh?" Rita grinned.

Andros adopted a sterner expression. "Hey, watch it, there!"

Rita rolled her eyes. "Hey, I'm just sayin'! Besides, she never made it a secret she'd dye her hair twice a week."

"Not anymore, she doesn't," said Andros, a little tired of being the center of attention.

"So where is she, anyway?" Zedd asked, and, coming back to the original question, "And Zhane? Did they run off and elope this week or what?"

Andros rolled his eyes.

"Karone went to Terra Venture about five months back to help the Power Rangers there," explained T.J. "They kind of… lost a Pink Ranger." He noticed Cassie hang her head a moment. "But something happened this week—we lost contact with the colony. So Zhane went off after them."

"Aww, how sweet," Rita cooed, half-mockingly, half-sincerely.

"More Power Rangers?" Zedd balked. "And just who, pray tell, would be stupid enough to try to launch a large-scale anti-Ranger operation without the UAE? There was nothing even remotely as grandiose in the entire universe and none of Dark Specter's holdings would have stood for anyone else to move in once we were gone!"

"Trakeena," said Cassie. "I don't know if you—"

"_Trakeena_?" Rita spat. "Ugh… that bug-ugly _whore_! I hope those two kick her little arthropod ass! What a _pest_!"

Zedd swirled a bit of the Salice Salentino in his glass, sniffed it and tasted it. "Mmm… this is actually pretty good vine serum here!"

Ashley chuckled as she twirled another forkful of spaghetti. "I never thought I'd be saying this, but you know, Rita, and Zedd, I actually _completely_ agree with both of what you just said!"

"Well, you know, it ain't the first time _we've_ agreed with the Rangers, heh?" Rita laughed, elbowing Zedd.

He was in the middle of sipping his wine and the elbowing caused him to dribble a little onto his chin and shirt. Looking down at himself, he began fuming. "Why, you sneering little—" He stopped short and gritted his teeth as he noticed all eyes on him. "Ah, yes, that's right… the time we had to _help_ the Power Rangers!"

"No way!" exclaimed Carlos.

"When was this?" Ashley asked excitedly.

Zedd and Rita looked at each other, eyes wide.

"Why don't you tell it, Zeddy? You came up with the idea!"

"Oh!" Zedd moaned. "Don't remind me. The most traumatizing experience of my whole career! Even though I knew I was doing the right thing then and I know it even more now, it still pains me to remember!"

"Come on, you can tell!" said Cassie. "You know, telling the story is a kind of therapy."

"Really?"

Cassie nodded, smiling.

Zedd sighed. "If I tell, it stays at this table!"

"No problem!" Andros promised.

"All right. It was early in 1997, back during the Machine Era. They'd kidnapped the Red Ranger, Tommy, and erased his memory…"

As Zedd told the tale, Andros marvelled at the story and observed how gradually he became visibly more comfortable as he spoke. Cassie was right: it _was_ therapeutic to tell the story.

To boot, it was an entertaining story: how Zedd and Rita cheered the ZEO Rangers on and discreetly helped them undermine the Royal House of Gadgetry in the last days of those UAE separatists' attempted invasion of Earth…

* * *

><p>The Silver Cycle blazed through the wild jungles of the strange planet, skilfully dodging the natural obstacles. Zhane had chosen to land where the most artificial-looking debris seemed to have fallen, figuring it was a good bet that the survivors would have tried to camp at least fairly close to the wreckage in case there be anything to salvage.<p>

The spot at which he had found the debris was on a part of the planet that was now around its solar meridian. Zhane's internal clock had still been on Pacific Standard Time upon landing, so it seemed to him much, much later. He braced himself for some serious jetlag if he did find anything.

And as fortune would have it, he had come across some bands of primitive tribal folk, who had told him they had received word of of a band of extraterrestrial colonists setting up camp in outer territory not far from their turf, pointing south and west. Zhane had thanked them and set off to reach them, his heart pounding the entire way.

_It has to be them. They have to be there. They made it alive._

Zhane circled around the general area for over an hour before he finally began to see, in the distance, an encampment of people dressed in familiar-looking clothes and making use of at least a sparse amount of typical Terran technology.

His heart skipped about three beats as he drove up to the colonists and brought the Silver Cycle to a halt. The moment it had stopped completely, he did a flying leap into the air, crying, "POWER DOWN!"

Zhane landed nimbly on his rugged boot-clad feet, sporting a gray NASADA sweatshirt and khaki sport pants for the rough terrain.

The man in front of whom he landed was nonplussed. "Ah, umm, well, Silver Ranger! This is… certainly a pleasant surprise. I'm Commander Stanton."

Panting, Zhane shook the hand Commander Stanton offered. "Zhane Karova. We met once, briefly, when I handed you of the booklet on general extraterrestrial medical protocol."

"Ah, yes!" exclaimed Commander Stanton. "Forgive me. I was… a bit surprised by your sudden and unexpected entrance." He looked puzzled. "Are you here directly from Earth?"

"Yes, sir," said Zhane. "We'd lost contact with Terra Venture and I came to see whether you'd made it to a safe place before we started thinking about a rescue mission. And, well…" He chuckled. "Looks like you have!"

Commander Stanton drew a breath. "Well," he said, motioning to the encampment, "we're surviving, adequately. It's a little difficult at first, but the locals are friendly, the season appears to be in no danger of changing for the colder anytime soon and our knowledge-elite is hard at work planning how to carry out the necessary operations to build up some kind of infrastructure from scratch."

"We'll help," Zhane offered. "I have to head back in a day or two, but if you and your men can give me a report of what sort of things you need NASADA is already planning on sending aid missions over the next few months."

"Well, certainly, we will," agreed Commander Stanton. "Mike?" he called to the man a few feet away, who approached. "Zhane, this is Michael Corbett. Mike, Zhane Karova—the Silver Ranger, if you remember—is here from Earth to get a report about our infrastructural needs so that NASADA can send provisioning missions now that our capital city is gone. I need a general report about our status within twenty-four hours."

"Yes, sir," agreed Mike.

Zhane looked around the camp. "From the looks of it you'll probably have an easier time just giving us a list what you _do_ have and we fill in the rest."

"Not false," agreed Commander Stanton.

"Oh," Zhane continued, "by the way, umm… I understand you ended up having… another band of Power Rangers within the colony. Do you… you wouldn't know… where they might happen to be around here, would you?" His heart began pounding again as he said those words.

Commander Stanton shook his head. "They're every bit as secretive here as you and your colleagues were on Earth before the Quantron invasion last year."

_Great._ Now Zhane would have to search every nook and cranny for Karone—and he was already feeling like a little bit of an afternoon nap.

"Commander?" called a woman from behind him. "Can you please come here for a second?"

"Please excuse me," bade Commander Stanton.

Now that they were alone, Mike walked closer to Zhane and spoke in a low voice. "I'll show you to the Rangers."

"You are a Ranger?" Zhane asked.

"Kind of. Sort of. Was. Almost. It's a long story."

Zhane was puzzled as they walked along but forgot his puzzlement once Mike had led him over to a familiarly-colored group of five young people sitting around a fire with several cuts of meat. His heart sank when he saw Karone was not among them.

"Guys, this is Zhane Karova," Mike informed his former teammates. "Otherwise known as the Silver Ranger."

The young man in red, who somewhat resembled Mike, stood up to greet the Karovan. "Hey! I'm Leo. Where were you back in June when the others were here?"

"Long story," Zhane said, trying to force a friendly expression.

"Well… Zhane, this is Damon, Kai, Maya and Kendrix," announced Leo, motioning to his teammates.

"Hi, everyone," Zhane said, a bit more somberly than he normally would have.

The girl called Maya, a pretty brunette in a very flattering ensemble, made bug eyes and stood up. "There's someone you want to see!" she exclaimed. Zhane watched as she dashed a few yards away to the water purification device—where Karone was filling a few jugs.

As soon as Maya reached Karone and said something into her ear, Karone dropped the jugs and whirled around. She and Zhane were now face to face, and immediately began approaching each other, both as though in a trance.

"H-how did you get here?" Karone asked.

"Galaxy Glider."

"How long did it take?"

"Only four and a half hours."

They just stood there for a few moments, looking each other up and down, until Karone broke the silence. "Zhane, I-I can't… believe you're here," she said.

After a few more moments of silence, they heard Maya approaching cautiously "Hey, guys!" she said. "Sorry to interrupt, but… Zhane, you want some lunch? We were just putting steaks on the fire…"

"Oh, yeah, absolutely!" exclaimed Zhane.

* * *

><p>Once they'd eaten their fill, the Karovas set out for a little promenande through the jungle as Karone recounted the details of everything that had happened.<p>

"So then," she explained, "when we'd realized our mission was over, we put our Quasar Sabers back in the shrine and the Mirinoians came back to life… and… so did Kendrix."

"Wow," Zhane whispered. He was almost indifferent to that last bit, his mind filled with only one fixation: "Karone, you're a Power Ranger."

Karone giggled a bit. "I know, huh? Every now and then I still can't believe it." She sighed contentedly. "What about you?"

"Oh… me? Not much. I quit NASADA; I opened up a wine shop."

"Are you serious?" Karone looked shocked, but pleasantly so.

"Yeah. I wanted something a bit more… _me_. Something I'd stick with and hold on to. It's actually working out really well… you know that fusel stripper that reduces hangovers, that thing Andros and I always pulled out with the wine or spirits? Well… I started making and selling them at the store and they're a pretty hot item."

Karone nodded. "Sounds like you're doing well."

"I'm doing okay," Zhane acknowledged. "I guess."

Karone turned her head to look at Zhane. "You 'guess'?"

"I've missed you a lot." Zhane waited for a response, but she just blinked back a little bit. His heart fluttered. He wondered if maybe he'd spoken too quickly. But… would that mean she hadn't missed him?

Finally, Karone said, "I… missed you, too," but the tone of her voice suggested that she had said so hesitantly, almost reluctantly.

And did it mean something that she'd used simple past and not present perfect? Yes, grammar was often incorrect in speech, but at moments like this people—especially people like Zhane—tend to analyze the precise meaning of everything.

"I… I'm leaving tomorrow morning," Zhane told her. "It's kind of long, but there's definitely room for one more on the Galaxy Glider." He blinked a few times himself. "I mean…"

Karone smiled. "That's good," she said.

"Karone, the battle's over, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Then we can go home?" When she turned away from him, he felt himself panic inside. "Karone?"

"Where _is_ my home?" he heard her whisper.

_Oh, no. She's changed._

Maybe he should have come after her as soon as he'd gotten the note.

Or maybe that would simply have provided the closure needed to end everything for good then and there.

_Life and its stupid senseless catch-22s._

* * *

><p>Zhane spent the rest of the afternoon with Mike helping make out the technological report and a rough infrastructural Plan B to submit to NASADA, but he was obviously out of spirits and Mike asked him several times if he were feeling all right.<p>

The sun began to set around 7:45 PM and Mike and the Rangers invited Zhane to join them for a campfire dinner, but Zhane was so overwhelmed with anxiety, confusion and exhaustion that he curled up on a nice patch of grass near the fire and, without meaning to, dozed off by 8:15, before the soup was even ready.

Karone, anxious and confused herself, nevertheless found this sleeping figure just adorable. Here he'd come from a third of the way across the universe—doubtless at the becking of NASADA, though a part of her strongly suspected (and wanted to believe) he had wanted to see that she was okay—, suffered jet lag, spent all afternoon working… and just given out completely. But there was no way he could stay all night like that.

"Zhane?" she whispered, her fellow Rangers watching and snickering.

"Mmm-hmm?" Zhane murmured without opening his eyes.

"You asleep?"

"Hmm-mmm."

"You want to go under the tent?"

"Mmm-hmm."

"You feeling okay?

"Hmm-mmm."

Karone put a hand to her chest. _Oh, how dreadful!_ Was it her fault Had she broken his heart today? How could she? How could she still think about staying on Mirinoi?

But she was thinking about it.

Leo helped Karone pull Zhane up and drag him over to the tent. By the time he was comfortably in a sleeping bag, the soup was ready, and as soon as she'd gotten hers, Karone pulled Maya aside. "Can I talk to you a few minutes?"

"Sure," agreed Maya. So the two gals went off to soup under a nearby tree.

"I'm kind of confused about things," began Karone.

"You mean Zhane?"

"Yeah." It had only occurred to Karone back there in the woods that she hadn't really brought up Zhane—though Maya was at least somewhat aware of what the two of them had had—or any of the other Rangers all that much over the past months, or even of her plans for after the mission.

"I mean," Karone continued, "I've barely thought about him all these months and now that he's back it's all just pouring back in, like I never left Earth.

"But… I'm _here_. I became a Power Ranger here. I began making reparations for my past as Astronema. I… made my own friends, without my brother or anyone telling me what to do. It's like… I have a life here I didn't on Earth.

"But… Zhane was the first person who ever believed in me—even when he knew me as Astronema. Not even Andros could do that. Even Andros, though…" She looked at Maya. "At the same time, if it weren't for Andros and Zhane I'd never have made it out; I'd never be here today."

"But it's not because someone in your past helped you get into your future that you have to abandon your future for them," Maya pointed out.

"I know." Karone blinked a few times. "But it's not like I have a love interest here, and Zhane's a really good guy, but… oh. Just a little behind with moving things forward, even for us. He didn't even try to follow me when he got my note telling where I'd gone!" He hadn't even called her _babe_ since he'd come here.

"You wish he had?"

Karone sighed, feeling sheepish. "I told him not to in the note. Still, you know…" Something down had wondered whether or even expected that he might ignore that clause, even if she had hoped he wouldn't."

"I understand," said Maya, reading her tone.

"Or maybe he thought my note was really sincere because Andros had been smothering me and he worried he'd be doing the same." _And thought I was too cold to take warmly to him calling me_ babe_._ Karone chuckled. "I guess I should just let _that_ part go.

"But even Andros, he… he's family." Karone sipped another mouthful of the warm, pleasant soup. "The only family I have left."

They were silent for a few moments before Maya spoke. "Look, Karone: wherever you go, your past is behind you. Even if it's back to some place you were just a few months, it's still beyond that past. You've earned the right to move on.

"I mean… you have no idea how happy I am that we managed to get back to Mirinoi after all these months, and how happy I am that can live with my old friends and family again all together with my new friends. I'm so glad you're all here.

"But if… you have to choose, you go where you have a future."

"I don't know where I have a future," Karone sighed. "If I did… if I could choose, I think maybe I'd choose something more _normal_, but after those first six and a half months on Earth I wonder if maybe I'm just not meant to have one."

Maya smiled, though Karone could barely see it in the ever-fading light. "Well, there's plenty of 'weird' stuff everywhere in the universe. Earth, Mirinoi… hey, look at Zhane! Still powered up and ready. If you're meant for that it'll come back to you."

"Yeah." Karone smiled. "I guess we just don't live in a 'normal' universe the way people used to think of 'normal' on Earth, period. I guess if I'd grown up longer on KO-35 I'd remember that a bit more. Or… maybe I wouldn't; maybe I'd have stayed just an ordinary 'normal Kerovan. Whatever that means."

Maya shrugged. "You, just a civilian? C'mon, Karone. You were a natural."

"Thanks."

"I'll really miss you if you go."

"I'll miss you all."

* * *

><p>Zhane was packing a few items into the Silver Cycle late the next AM when Karone approached him. "Hey," she said.<p>

"Hey," Zhane replied somberly. "I'm headed off in an hour."

"Yeah, it looks like it." Karone blinked. "You said there's room for one more?"

Zhane perked up hopefully but re-restrained himself. "Yeah."

"You didn't offer it to anyone, did you?" Karone asked, looking nervous.

"No, babe of course not!" Zhane had just let that slip out without thinking, but the way Karone's eyes lit up when he did gave him such a sense of relief. And yet he felt himself shaking.

"Zhane… I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to come along next. I don't exactly know what I'll do on Earth or what I would do here, but… I have to be somewhere; I have to take risks."

Zhane took Karone's hand and pulled her closer to himself. "Babe, I want to be there with you when you take that risk. I'm sorry I wasn't here for this one. I didn't know what to do. I know what I should've done. I know what I'll do next time."

Karone shook her head. "If you'd come after me you couldn't have stayed and I'd have had to. Then it'd have been the end, maybe for good. But I went off, and I finished a task. I had to do that and I'm glad I did."

"I want to be there with the next thing that comes along."

"I want you to be there," Karone whispered. "You and Andros and all the others. I wish everyone could. But my friends here can't come back to Earth and I can't be here and on Earth at the same time." She swallowed. "So I'm taking a risk and choosing Earth."

"Oh, Karone!" Zhane pulled the blonde girl into a tight embrace. "Karone, I want to be with you right up to the end. Will you marry me?"

The two pulled back and Karone's eyes were wider than ever. "Zhane?"

"I know; I didn't plan it, either!"

"You really should plan things, you know!"

"I know, and I've been doing better these days, but I just know _this_ is the right thing!"

Karone just stared for a moment. Then she said, "Give me some time, Zhane."

Zhane sobered up just a bit. Okay… perhaps he _had_ gone a bit too far. "Babe?"

"Zhane, I want to get closer to you first. To everyone. I want to understand at least a little bit about where my place is, where we might end up." She swallowed. "Terra Venture was really important for me. It helped me put my past behind me. But that's over now. The power is over. Now I need to figure out where I'll be next.

"And you," she said, pointing a finger into his chest, "need to be sure about where you'll be in six months. Don't you have a shop to attend to, Mr. Karova?"

"Actually… I do, Ms. Karova," Zhane acknowledged. He was disappointed, but at least Karone spoke with enough flirtatious affection to give him hope. Certainly this was everything he had hoped for when he had first come. Still, he ought not to cede too much ground on his personality. "One day off won't put me out of business."

* * *

><p>"I feel like I'm on a magic carpet!" Karone exclaimed as they glided through space, she clutching on to Zhane's waist from behind. "So what are we gonna do first?"<p>

"Well, it'll be around midnight Pacific Time when we get in, so sleep—and hopefully revert back to Pacific Time just as quickly as I had to change to the Mirinoi camp's time!"

Karone laughed. "Cassie and Ashley kept our apartment, or no?"

"Yeah, they did. Ah…" Suddenly Zhane remembered what had become of his girlfriend's bedroom. _Uh-oh._ "There's, ah… something I gotta tell you about."

"Huh?"

"Well, see… when the war ended, there were a couple others in the UAE who… defected." Zhane was trying to be as delicate as possible in terms of references to the past.

"'Defected'? You mean, became good?" Karone spoke with candor, sounding not in the least uncomfortable about discussing her former colleagues from the dark side.

Maybe Zhane was just being a little sensitive. "Well, yeah. See… Zedd and Rita—"

"Zedd and Rita turned _good_?"

"Well, kinda. They weren't killed, see… and you know how they were on Triforia…"

"Right?"

"And Trey found them, but he was afraid of what the other Triforians would do to them, so he shipped them off to Earth, with a message asking us to help them on their way. They just arrived this last week, and we were going to put them in our apartment since we were all going back into space, but with the mission aborted that kind of wasn't a viable option… so, we thought about where would be a discreet place with a spare bedroom where we could keep an eye on them.

"And since Cassie and Ashley weren't using the third bedroom in _their_ place for anything, well, they…" His voice trailed off as his mind failed to find the words to finish breaking this awkwardly distressing news.

Not that he had to say anything more. It had been made pretty clear what was going on.

Karone gasped. "Rita stole my room! That _bitch_!"

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

_**Author's Note:** Terra Venture was lost. Karone was found. Karone's room was lost. That's the meaning of the sub-title. What did you think, Zhane was gonna lose, find and lose Karone? _


	8. The More Things Change

_**The Ones I Love  
><strong>_Part VII: The More Things Change  
><strong>by MegaSilver<strong>

It was about half past midnight when Zhane and Karone slipped through the door to the latter's shared apartment. Neither was particularly tired just yet, but Zhane didn't want to risk being too tired to set things up for Karone later.

The first thing Zhane did was to fetch some fresh sheets and pillowcases and change his bed while Karone helped herself to some leftover spaghetti-and-meetballs from the fridge. Zhane was relieved that the gang had cooked a nice big wholesome dinner the night before; on a normal evening the place would have been devoid of "good" food.

Then he used the bathroom briefly, and by the time he came out, he was horrified. Suddenly everything seemed a lot different when there was a girl being received. "Uh, Karone?" he whispered, trying not to wake Andros. "If you can wait maybe fifteen minutes or so… I think I'd like to give that thing a good scrubbing down."

"Zhane, it's okay," Karone sighed.

"No, look. I'm really sorry about your apartment. I don't want you to have to suffer on behalf of those two. Tell you what, go get set up in my room, just wind down a bit. Ah—first…" Zhane ducked into his bedroom for a few minutes and emerged wearing a white t-shirt and gym shorts.

Karone chuckled. "Got anything to read?"

Zhane rolled his eyes nervously. "Uhh…." _Man, I suck at this whole domestic thing._ "A couple of political magazines… some medical journals… a few books on wine tasting and viticulture…"

Karone grimaced a little but then grinned. "I'll try the wine books."

"Yeah, good idea." As Zhane marched off to the bathroom and began pulling out bleach wipes, Soft Scrub and some sponges, the only thing he could think was, _Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why the hell'd you let them take Karone's room, dummy?_

At least, though Zhane was no neat freak, he'd done his share of cleaning in his time—in part as punishment—and worked quite thoroughly and efficiently.

A couple of minutes into scouring the bathtub tiles, Zhane heard the bathroom door squeak open and balked. He looked up to see Andros peeking in, rubbing his eyes.

"Zhane? Hey!"

"Shh!" Zhane whispered loudly, putting a finger to his lips. "Karone's in my room sleeping." Actually, he was sure she wasn't, but he wouldn't say so to Andros. Just let her relax her first night back.

"You got her back!"

"Yeah, I did!" Zhane scowled a bit as he looked at the bathroom around himself. "Not exactly a bathroom fit for a princess, though."

"Hey, we had everyone over last night; it wasn't that bad."

"Yeah, but for a shower in the morning…" Zhane shook his head. "We've got to do something about Zedd and Rita."

"Yeah, I know." Andros blinked a few times. "Can I give you a hand?"

"It's okay. Go back to bed." Zhane knew he'd be in for a long discussion if he accepted that help, and he wasn't sure either he or Andros was really up to telling everything that had happened. Besides… so much of it was Karone's story, for her to choose how to tell. Better let her have the first word with Andros on that.

"Night."

"Night." _Phew._

Zhane had to wonder whether Karone would have agreed to come back had she known she'd be having to stay a few nights under the same roof as her brother. Andros seemed insufferable whenever his sister was around.

But Andros had since acknowledged that. Maybe this time around it would be different.

_Hopefully._

* * *

><p>Karone was a little bit taken aback when she saw Andros and not Zhane in the kitchen at eleven o'clock the next morning, but she decided to play it cool. "Hi, Andros," she said somberly.<p>

Andros turned to face her. "Karone!"

Now looking into his eyes after so many months' absence, and that right on the heels of a precarious reunion, Karone was surprised at how wonderful she found it was to have close kin so close by! Overbearing or not, Andros was a good-willed protector. And a part of her.

"How have you been? What happened? We'd lost the signal with Terra Venture—twice!"

"Well…" Karone drew in a deep breath. "A lot happened, actually!" She looked around the apartment all of a sudden. "Where's Zhane?"

"Oh, he went into his wine shop. He told you about that place?" At Karone's nod, Andros continued, "He keeps it open from eleven to five on Sundays."

"Wow," exclaimed Karone. "He doesn't have an assistant?"

"Ah… he's just now got the cash to have one or two more hands. This week he's training Cassie: she's been wanting to work there and she's been tasting a lot of wines lately."

Karone chuckled. "Maybe I should brush up on my wines." She had tried reading one of Zhane's wine anthologies the night before, but she knew next to nothing of œnological terminology and the book had scarcely meant anything to her. She had quite nearly fallen asleep looking through it.

"Hey, Karone, what do you say we go have lunch with Ashley and Cassie and you tell us all about everything?"

"Aha," Karone replied dryly. "You mean lunch at _my_ place? I take it Rita and Zedd will be there?"

Andros slapped a hand to his forehead. "Oh, no; I forgot. I'm really sorry about that whole mess."

Karone rolled her eyes. "No, you're not."

* * *

><p>Late that afternoon, marching back at the Karovas' apartment, Andros wiped his forehead as he shut the door behind himself and Karone.<p>

"That was… an interesting lunch," he remarked, casting an ambivalent gaze at his sister.

"Yes, I can see how certain people might have thought that," Karone muttered sarcastically. Not that they had had a _bad_ time, and not that she and Rita had hissed at each other with quite the same venomous breath as they had at that infamous royal banquet in the Cimmerian planet, but the two women definitely did not see eye-to-eye on much.

"Look, Karone, I mean… try to understand Rita and Zedd are going through the same thing you did—"

"With the difference that I actually _care_," insisted Karone. She looked Andros straight in the eye. "Look, I know it's not easy. But here they are: they were on the side that got _massively_ defeated—the _evil_ side, I might add—and they're _only_ alive because of Zordon's goodwill. And, okay, they're not going around casting bolts of lighting at innocent people, but… they don't seem in the _least_ inclined to rethink their existences! They think it's just some sort of happy-go-lucky hipster world now and they can just party hearty. And Rita talks herself up to me like I'm still Astronema!"

"_Karone_…" Andros began, visibly exasperated.

The younger Karova sibling sighed. "Look, I know _I'm_ the one who has to take responsibility for what I say to her or to anyone. But I've had to put Astronema behind me. It wasn't easy. It's _still_ not easy. And then Rita comes out and plays it all badass and just tries to draw that old monster out of me again… I mean, can you see why I'm annoyed? I'm _not_ some stupid evil diva. I don't _want_ to go back there. I'm… I'm a _Power Ranger_, damn it!"

For once, Andros didn't try to hold his ground. He just stood there and listened.

"And for that matter, I'm not a girl, anymore; I'm a woman! Look, you've been so kind to me. I could never have come back to the right side if I hadn't had you there to hold me up and maybe it's true that Rita and Zedd don't have family like you.

"But Zhane… look, Andros, he… came halfway across the universe to get me and I came back with him—I left the life I'd made, the friends I'd made; I _made_ them; _I_ went out and made that life and I _had_ to prove to myself I was capable of doing that—but I couldn't turn my back on you and _definitely_ not on Zhane.

"I guess… Andros… you know Zhane's a good guy. I really think he… cares about me." Karone paused for a moment, a bit unnerved at her choice of words. She had wanted to say _loves_: she wanted so badly to believe that about him, but he had never said it.

She wanted to believe she loved him, but… without having said it to Zhane herself, did she have the _right_ to believe that?

"So," Karone continued, "I guess what I mean is, you don't _have_ to be such an ass when we go out on dates."

Andros nodded and chuckled. For a few moments, he looked like he wanted to speak, but no words came out.

Suddenly Karone felt bad. Her frankness had regularly manifested itself as pure meanness when she was Astronema, and nowadays when it surfaced she always feared it might go too far. "I'm sorry, Andros!" she pleaded sincerely. "That was harsh."

Still chuckling, Andros shook his head. "No," he contradicted. "It's not that; it's just just…" He sighed contentedly as he looked at his sister there in the kitchen with him. "Karone, you're so grown up!"

Karone nodded. "I am, Andros."

"All that while after you came back I tried to think of you as not Astronema, but… all I could see was that innocent little girl I played 'Power Rangers' with in the yard. But now when I look at you… _finally_, I _can_ see a Power Ranger. Even just watching you today at lunch, the way you talked, you argued, you laughed… I really think this mission _did_ bring out something new in you.

Karone smiled. "Thanks. I'd hoped it would."

"I'm so glad you're back."

At that moment, a familiar voice called from outside, "Yo! Babe!"

Andros flashed Karone a knowing expression. "Someone else is glad you're back, too."

The pair trotted out to the balcony to see Zhane standing on the sidewalk next to the two-story walk-up complex, unmorphed but leaning up against the Silver Cycle.

It wasn't personal gain, Zhane always protested: it was just personal self-indulgence. And hey, why the heck not? They weren't adolescents anymore. Time to command the Power for themselves.

"Hey, guys!" Zhane called, waving up at his friends but showing no sign of preparing to come up the stairs into the apartment.

Andros and Karone looked at each other, and Karone said, "I'm probably gonna take off for a little bit, I guess."

Andros nodded. "See you." As Karone started down the steps, he added jocularly, "Be back by eleven!"

From down on the ground, Karone put her thumbs in her ears and blew a good-natured raspberry at her brother, who just laughed it off. Then she turned back to Zhane.

"Hey," her boyfriend began, "don't mean to drudge up old memories, but… feel like being bad for a little bit?"

Karone regarded him with suspicion. "Just how bad? _You_ have to work tomorrow."

"I'm thinking, oh… just run away for a couple of hours… a few miles further than Mom and Dad would allow."

Karone made a dry expression and flashed an evil Astronema grin. "_That_ would be im_pressive_."

No, she wasn't Astronema anymore, and she didn't want to be. But here and there she was managing to pull out and dust off the little bits of her former ego that were truly and genuinely _her_ and not evil.

Casually, without altering his pose, Zhane took out his Digimorpher, tapped in a few numbers and transformed into the Silver Ranger. He reached into the luggage compartment and drew out a pair of gloves, a leather jacket and a helmet for Karone to don, and she did.

Once they were seated on the Cycle, Karone asked, "So, where to, Psycho Silver?"

"Psycho Silver," Zhane mused. "I like that!"

"Do you? I invented it myself."

"'Course you did!"

"So, what _is_ the destination, then?"

"New York, New York, babe!"

"Ooooh!" Karone cooed. "Let's go tear up the town."

"Right sure! Next stop, Broadway and 42nd!" He switched on the Power Engine. "Up, up and away!"

Back in the apartment, Andros pondered romantic love for a moment before picking up the phone and dialling Ashley's number.

"Hey, Ash… you know what? I just realized we haven't been on a date in three months!"

The voice on the other end let out a hyperbolic exasperated sigh. "Finally, you got it! I was just about to gripe to you."

_Just in time, then._ She might have been joking, but with women, one could never be too careful. "As for Rita and Zedd… you know what Adam and Rocky are doing tonight?"

"No, I don't, but I can't imagine it's so important that _they_ can't take _their_ turn babysitting."

"All right. I'll call them and then come by to pick you up in about twenty minutes."

* * *

><p>"So, Grandma O'Dell is coming for Christmas," explained Ashley as she and Andros sat on a dock, gazing out at the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean. She was too amused at the way the horizontal rays bathed them in red and yellow light, and she wondered whether Zhane and Karone were dining under silver and pink lighting somewhere near Broadway.<p>

"Grandma O'Dell?" Andros looked thoughtful. "Wait, is that—"

"Yep," Ashley nodded. Grandma Matchmaker. Ashley and her family had gone to see her in Illinois that summer, but Andros hadn't seen her since that little mishap with Carlos. "Does she… know about us?"

"Oh, yeah." Ashley nodded, wide-eyed. "It was either fess up or hear some more tips on how 'now that I'm older, I ought to be keeping my eyes open!'" She laughed a little and shook her head. "Anyway, I thought I'd better warn you she's definitely gonna want to meet you. And ask if things are 'going well.'"

"They are, aren't they?" Andros asked immediately in response.

The candidness of the question surprised Ashley. "Huh? I mean… _yeah_! I think… it's just…" Things _were_ going well. She just hadn't really expected that topic of conversation to come up _right_ at this moment. "Are—are you… what about you? Are you happy… on Earth?"

"I am," Andros nodded. "I'm happy. What I said back on KO-35 last year, that my home was with you… I _meant_ it. I was sure of it and I'm still sure. I'm happy I'm with you… Ashley."

Slowly the pair turned their heads inward to gaze into each other's eyes. "I'm happy you're here with me," whispered Ashley.

"Are you?"

"Yes." Her heart began pounding.

"Ashley, I love you."

Ashley felt the epinephrine burst forth at precisely that moment. It had taken nearly two years for him to say so—but perhaps it was precisely that wait, reflection and development that just gave the words so much more depth and meaning when he pronounced them now. And so, excited and surprised though she was, Ashley could say honestly, without shaking and without flinching. "I love you."

"Will you be my wife?"

"Andros, yes!" Now at last the adrenaline came unhinged, and Ashley threw herself into the welcoming embrace of her fiancé as they exchanged a short but passionate kiss. "I could never love a man the way I love you if I didn't want him to be my husband! Yes!"

* * *

><p>Several days later, about a block away from the Youth Center, another adrenaline-laced and equally nervous, but far less cheery, frank discussion took place.<p>

On this occasion, Tommy was with Rocky and Adam. The latter two were breaking the news to Tommy about Rita and Zedd. Tommy took it stone cold, just staring at the pair of childhood friends in disbelief.

"And you waited until now to tell me. _Why_?"

"At first we weren't going to tell _anyone_," explained Adam. Both of them spoke with such calm directness that Tommy had to think they had rehearsed this all a hundred times over.

_Corner me like a fox, huh?_

Was that how they'd treat their old friend, teammate? _Leader?_

"Andros wouldn't even hear about telling you at first," Adam continued.

"You had to have his approval?" Tommy cocked his head slightly.

"Tommy, we're all Rangers!" protested Rocky. "We need to be in this together!"

Tommy nodded. "In it together, huh? Did you ever fight alongside Andros? Did he consult me or any of us before he killed Zordon? Did he worry about you and accept all responsibility for your _lives_ for three years like I did, huh?" He felt his blood steadily heating up. "Did Rita and Zedd kidnap Andros and steal his free will and his powers the way they did to me? To Kat? To K—?"

Tommy swallowed and stopped himself from saying _Kim_. Since July, it was at best all Tommy could do to keep his ex-girlfriend and former teammate out of his mind and sometimes outright impossible not to think of her. The letter had left a painful imprint in his mind, but that had been nothing compared with the unbearable, salted pain of loss and regret now conjured up at the mere mention of her name. Since that summer, Tommy had been haunted by recurrent visions of Kimberly Hart in his wife's place—not visions born of concupiscence, for they were both unwanted and highly distressing, but visions born of some diabolical plot to keep alive a terrible story he so badly wished to close.

He _had_ to close it… for Katherine. But Katherine wasn't the only one he had hurt. Even if he closed it for Katherine, his wife, his prize, his beloved… he would still be haunted by the bruised figure of the first woman he had loved.

Tommy took a deep breath and forced himself to ignore this terrible affliction, for the moment. It helped to engage in more pressing confrontations, physical or emotional. "Are you with me or with Andros?"

"Tommy, that's not fair!" protested Rocky. "Andros lost his sister to Dark Specter all those years; he _did_ go through—"

"'Fair'?" Tommy stared wide-eyed right into Rocky's eyes. "_Fair?_ Andros has his sister back. He's got his nice cushy life on Earth as his reward for what he did. Dark Specter's dead. Rita and Zedd aren't!

"Do you think it was fair that Zordon died to save the universe? Do you think it's fair that Andros dictates everything that happens in the aftermath just because he 'happened' to be active Ranger team leader at that exact moment?"

Tommy was sincere in these convictions, but there was another, less heroic, motivation that he could not, at that moment, admit to himself. It was this: he simply _had_ to know who his friends were and know they'd be there with him, that he could protect them. He'd been fighting through life alone ever since he'd quit being a Ranger, living only for Katherine. He'd been struggling morally and materially for himself and his wife and felt so far beneath where he had been in the days when he inspired and commanded an elite task force so effortlessly. He could bear it no longer.

Moreover, Tommy simply couldn't know that Andros had lost his parents to Dark Specter—a tragedy on par with the loss of Zordon.

Moreover, Tommy simply couldn't accept that Zordon had in his right mind allowed and willed his own demise—as well as the sparing of Zedd and Rita. Whatever Trey or anyone else opined on the matter, he simply could not hear it.

So Tommy reiterated, "Do you think it was fair?"

Rocky and Adam didn't respond right away. He'd managed to throw enough to get around the niceties of their pre-fabricated responses.

_Good. I'm out of the corner. Now we're back to playing on level ground._ Just that knowledge helped Tommy relax.

"Look," he said, "here's my position. Andros wants to take care of Zedd and Rita, he's on his own. I don't want his gold or anything. You two decide what you need to do. You have to make your own choices. But don't expect me to like it or support it."

**TO BE CONTINUED…  
><strong>


	9. Redemption for Another Day

_**The Ones I Love  
><strong>_Part VIII: Redemption for Another Day  
><strong>by MegaSilver<strong>

"_Hii-yaah!_" thundered Rocky, bringing his fist just inches from the jaw of his sparing partner, whom he had levelled onto the sand.

Jason Lee Scott smiled up at his replacement-turned-teammate. "Awesome, Rocky!" he complimented as said replacement offered him a hand to get to his feet.

"Thanks, man," said Rocky as he helped Jason up. "I never thought I'd be able to match _you_ in sparring!" He reached down for his towel, threw it over his shoulder and snatched up his shoes.

"Hey," said Jason, "from one Red Ranger to another… I'd say it's part of the code."

Rocky laughed a bit. Then his expression turned a bit more serious. "'Course, I wasn't really a Red Ranger like the others."

"What do you mean?"

"Come on, man," Rocky sighed as they began padding slowly away from the coastline and off the beach. "You know what I mean. I was never team leader. Not even close, actually."

"Oh, Rocky, you know that doesn't matter, don't you?"

"I mean, I'm not upset or anything; I know I'm not the leader sort of guy. Just… I knew that the Red Ranger was always the default leadership position but Tommy got it because he was better for that, more experienced, too. Then when we got the ZEO Crystal, just getting brushed into blue, sideswept so Tommy, the leader, could take the red… I mean, I didn't care about the color, really. But I think it went to Tommy's head. All throughout that last year, I felt like he was treating me… like I was expendable."

Jason's eyes went wide. "You really think that?"

Rocky shrugged. "Kinda. He was one of the first Rangers I knew. He, Billy and Kim. Adam, Aisha and I knew they were Rangers long before we were supposed to, we fought alongside them long before we were Rangers ourselves; I always thought that meant something special for our friendship. But then Tommy kind of… ignored me that last year.

"Just like he doesn't want to hear me out on Andros now. I guess no other Red Ranger counts for anything for him, leader or not… unless your name's Jason Scott."

Rocky covered his mouth. He had forgotten whom he was speaking to. "Sorry!" he gulped.

Jason chuckled and punched Rocky lightly on the arm. "I get what you meant." He took a deep breath. "Look, I don't think it's just Tommy trying to be a snob, though. I mean, you know what happened with Kim pretty soon after the ZEO Crystal, and then, all this stuff with Katherine in England—" Jason seemed to stop himself short.

"Wh-what's wrong?" Rocky puzzled. "I thought they were happy in England!" Rocky could have moments of deep insight such as the preceding one, but on the whole he remained his old naïve self.

Jason shook his head. "Things've been rough. I'm not sure what, and what I know I'm not sure I can say, but I gather it's been a bit stormy. I can tell Tommy's really relieved to be back in California for good.

"The thing is, since that letter, I think Tommy's felt a bit out of control, and hearing about a successor Ranger making a huge drastic decision like Andros did, and maybe not the decision Tommy would've wanted, is just a bit too much for him."

"Well, he needs to get over that," Rocky muttered.

"You gotta know Tommy," explained Jason. "It's not that simple. Definitely not in this case."

Rocky sighed. _Maybe Tommy and I were never so tight as I might have thought._ "What about you, Jase? What do you think of that whole thing? I mean, with Zordon and Andros and Rita and Zedd and all?" Rocky asked as the former Red Rangers sat down on the stony wall overlooking the beach.

Jason's eyes went wide. He puffed out a breath of air. "I can't really say," he confessed. "In all honesty, when I heard about it, I was glad I wasn't the one there making the decision. But now it's over; I'm not gonna tell Andros how he should've acted."

"Or Tommy's?"

Jason didn't answer immediately. He perhaps hadn't thought about the way that last sentence might implicate his best friend. "Tommy was a Ranger longer than I. I don't know what he saw or went through that might have made him feel Zordon was a bit more his responsibility than I felt."

Rocky was fascinated. He'd never been close to Jason, but now he could see that Jason had that same unyielding loyalty and fierce inspirational fighting charisma that Tommy had… but was obviously more self-confident and less stubborn.

Perhaps, though, such a judgment is unfair. Tommy, after all, had never had to make the sort of decision Andros had had to make about Zordon, or even the sort Jason had had to make about the Green Candle. Tommy had always risen to the occasion when he had been called to inspire others, but never had he been called to legislate for them. Not during his tenure as a Ranger, nor before, nor truly since. Not even really for Katherine.

Rocky wasn't thinking quite that far, of course. He wasn't really aware of Tommy's life before or after the Power. And right now, he was feeling bad for having dragged Jason out here to talk about all this on the latter's vacation.

Time for a subject change. "So how's El Paso?"

Jason shrugged. "I'm doing okay. Interesting city, kind of dangerous. I miss my friends. I've only gotten to see Zack once at Georgetown and Kim once in Florida. I started seeing a girl."

"Really? What's she like?"

"We've only been together two months. But she's nice. Bubbly. Cute, redheaded. Half Mexican, actually, but you'd never know it looking at her. Her name's Margo—Margarita, actually, but she tries for a less Hispanic-sounding name for whatever reason."

"Wow." Rocky smiled. His thoughts wandered back to the heavier situation at hand. "So… what's gonna happen? I mean, with all this?"

Jason shrugged. "Andros takes care of his things, Tommy his own."

"And you?"

"I stay out of it. I don't know Andros… really at all. I'll stay friends with Tommy; if he needs anything I'll help him." Jason looked at Rocky and raised a brow. "And you?"

Rocky shrugged. "Keep doing what I'm doing, I guess. I'm the one who found Zedd and Rita… along with Adam and T.J. I can't really just walk away from everything. I guess the best I can do is to try not to talk about Tommy."

"Good man."

"Keep trying to talk to him. I hope he'll come around, someday." Rocky flicked a small stone off the edge of the wall. "I just think Rangers shouldn't be so factionalized among ourselves like this."

"'Should be' and 'is' are really different concepts," Jason reflected.

Too true.

Among humans, even the noblest of intentions, the purest of hearts, the most earnest of efforts cannot vanquish every demon, cannot resolve every predicament. Redemption will come to those who believe, though perhaps not today…

* * *

><p>… for so long as man roams the Earth, for every noble human effort at resolving a problem there is another effort, on the part of someone else, to create yet another, unexpected.<p>

So even as Rocco DeSantos nobly sought the help of Jason Lee Scott to reconcile two men whom he counted among his friends before their conflict became factional, a NASADA Control Room agent, Theodore Van Bruin, had a most malicious personal vengeance in mind, against someone else known to both Rocky and Jason.

Van Bruin had been with Commander Norquist in the medical bunker that day when Andros and his friends had met Zedd and Rita, newly cast down to Earth. Van Bruin had been most interested in following this turn of events.

And follow it he had. Now, as he sat in his garage, listening in on the conversation in the apartment he had bugged, he began to think the time to act was fast approaching:

"… _Andros, come on_," cried a female voice. "_I mean, seriously, do we have to drag those two around to any sort of group gathering?_"

"_Karone, look. It's just half a day. Go down to the cliffs, have a little picnic._" There was a pause. Then: "_I think they're getting better. Look, just… okay, look, I promise we'll have Christmas just between us, okay?_"

"_Now you're treating me like a little kid again._" Another pause. "_Oh, well, I guess I'm acting kind of like one. All right. I'll go._"

Most excellent. Van Bruin would keep listening attentively for exact details of time and place.

But just then, for a moment, his attention was diverted to a dusty photograph sitting nearby. He picked up the portrait of his late wife Marie and their three deceased children: Jacqueline, Clinton and Jan, aged 10, 7 and 6 at the time of their deaths in February 1995.

Gazing upon that photograph, Van Bruin made a feeble attempt to flood his mind with memories of his beautiful family. Feeble was as much as he could manage.

Beneath the cold, vengeful shell was a broken, humiliated, bereaved man longing to let his tears flow forth. But the stone encasing that now engulfed, asphyxiated and stifled any movement of his heart would certainly not allow him to be emotionally overtaken by lovely memories. For over three years he had lived in more or less open grief, hoping against hope that something might thrust him back into life, back into the world, back among his fellow man.

Yet for whatever reason—possibly lack of effort on his own part, such as his failure to build upon those tiny relics of the past still alive elsewhere in the form of distant relatives or former friends scattered throughout Illinois, Michigan and Belgium—reintegration had not come. By mid-1998, Van Bruin had grown increasingly withdrawn from those around him and by the time the final showdown with Astronema had taken place, he was completely sealed off.

Here and there a tear would be shed, a prayer be said that he might, somehow, live once more, but always he would quickly close off that tiny bit of exposed flesh of his heart, refusing to break the cement barrier unless it could be broken on his own terms.

And certainly not before he had his revenge.

* * *

><p>"We've been talking," said T.J. as the six Space Rangers, Karone, Rita and Zedd relaxed on a blanket in an open grassy field in the exurbs between Angel Grove and Stone Canyon, "and we really think you two ought to consider going off to New York or Boston."<p>

"_What?_" Zedd spat, sounding a bit taken aback.

"Trying to get rid of us, huh?" Rita rolled her eyes.

"No," said Andros, "look. It's not that. But… I mean, you can't keep living like this. You've got to get a place of your own, jobs to support yourselves. And you can't do that in Angel Grove."

"And why the heck not, huh?" grunted Zedd. "Afraid someone might see us?"

"Actually, yeah." Cassie grimaced. "Look, I really hate to bring this up, but… let's face it. The fact is, you guys perpetrated like, a _lot_ of crimes around Angel Grove: murder, arson, vandalism, kidnapping… multiple counts of each. You weren't as well-known, Zedd, but… both of you, especially Rita, definitely had prices on your heads so far as city and state law enforcement were concerned. And people saw Rita actually look down from rooftops and laugh as everything was happening."

"There's no way you could beg for clemency," concluded Ashley. "Not at this point."

Rita rolled her eyes and puffed out a breath of air. "And what about Karone here, huh? I don't suppose anyone tries to cuff _her_ when she struts her stuff around at the open-air mall!"

Karone's entire body tensed up and she clenched her fists. She was visibly worked up and just barely containing some serious rage.

Zhane did not, however, contain his. "Why, you little—" He quickly calmed himself down, though. There was little he could accomplish by expressing rage at a woman. Even if that woman were Rita Repulsa.

Andros, a bit cooler, shot Rita a straight stare. "Watch it."

"Don't you tell my wife to watch it!" snapped Zedd.

"Then _you_ keep her under control!" Zhane snarled. He definitely had no scruples about telling a deserving man off.

Sensing all the eyes fixed on him, Zedd let his shoulders sink and sighed. He hated this feeling of being cornered and constrained, but ever since the Z-wave it seemed to be part and parcel of his life routine. He was growing used to not being in total control of the places he moved in.

Good thing, too, because he really had no other choice.

"Listen," said Andros, "nobody on Earth heard of Astronema until that final invasion. When she did show herself, she was visibly under the control of the neuro-robotic implant."

"And for what happened before… she didn't turn eighteen until after they planted it in her," Zhane added. "There's any number of defenses—"

"All _right_," Karone sighed. "_Thank_ you both for that lovely forensic psychoanalysis. I _think_ I can speak up for myself from here."

"Sorry," Andros sighed.

Karone turned and looked from Rita to Zedd and then back to Rita. "Zordon let you stay alive the way he did me. There was a reason. But the State of California won't understand that. I don't think it's totally fair, but what am _I_ going to do? Go and _ask_ the State of California to gas me? They wouldn't even if I did ask. But that's the bottom line. You're alive, you're _supposed_ to be, and if you want it to stay that way, you need to get _out_ of here and make the most of it."

Andros exchanged wide-eyed glances with Ashley and then with Zhane. Karone really _had_ grown up!

Even the duo seemed finally convinced by that discourse. "All right, all _right_," Zedd sighed. "So just what _are_ we supposed to do?"

"Well," said Carlos, "Andros and Zhane have work. But me, T.J., Ashley and Cassie have two weeks left after Christmas. We were thinking we'd go out there with you and get you started: job training, apartment hunting, you know, the like. Commander Norquist knows some people who can help you and… Trey sent us a gift to use to help you along the way."

"What sort of gift?" Rita murmured.

The Rangers all looked at each other and grinned. Zhane was the one who answered. "Oh, give or take, about $40,000 in gold coins from Triforia."

The duo's eyes went wide.

"So _that's_ what was in that box!" Rita chuckled. She looked at Zedd and shrugged. "Well, ya gotta admit, that's not bad for former sworn enemies!"

Zedd growled and rolled his eyes. "I suppose I can think of worse," he conceded. "At any rate, it'll be nice to be able to get out and move around freely on our own again!"

* * *

><p>The rest of the outing was genuinely convivial; overall, there was actually quite a bit of good feeling in the air. Even Karone and Rita, while not sharing any jokes directly, at least made it through the next hour without any hint of animosity between them.<p>

But as the nine made their way down the grassy knoll back to their cars, they were suddenly stopped in their tracks by the sight of a pistol-wielding man, just ten yards away from them.

Andros and Zhane both recognized him. But before one of them could cry, "Theo" or anyone else could make a movement, Van Bruin spoke.

"You son of a _bitch_," he uttered coldly, aiming at Zedd. Then he pulled the trigger twice.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	10. The Redemptions At Last

_**The Ones I Love  
><strong>_Part IX: The Redemptions At Last  
><strong>by MegaSilver<strong>

"_To [the murderers of my husband,] the men of the mafia – who are here in this church too – I want to say something. Become Christians again. I ask you, for Palermo, a city you've turned into a city of blood. Men of the mafia, I will forgive you, but you will have to get down on your knees."_

_~Rosario Schifani, 1992_

Zedd took one bullet to the abdomen and another through his lung. This second blast knocked the former Emperor of Evil off his feet and sent him sprawling onto the ground.

"Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-ZEDDDDDDDDYYYYYYY!" screamed Rita, her tone high-pitched but definitely not screechy as it had been in the dark days

Immediately after the first two gunshots, Van Bruin seemed to be taking aim at Rita. Fortunately for her, Andros had been standing at the fringes of the left wing of the group and far enough off to the corner to rush up and outflank the ultra-concentrated assailant. At once he forced his colleague's aim away from any people and when his colleague tried to snap it back in resistance, he only ended up throwing the gun uphill.

Andros discovered that Theodore actually had quite a bit of a fight in him, something he never would have expected from the blonde, discreet, stubbled, sad-looking man he had passed by every day at work for the past year. He struggled to overtake his colleague. Carlos rushed over to help him.

Karone, meanwhile, having seen the gun fly, ran to fetch it and pointed it at Theodore. "Let my brother go!" she screamed.

The three men looked up. Andros gasped. "Karone, no!"

Karone was a bit annoyed, but she knew Andros couldn't know that her finger was far from the trigger. There was no chance of misfire.

Still, her threat seemed to have little effect on the assailant. So she repeated it. "Let them go!" she snapped.

This time, Theodore seemed to pay attention. He stopped trying to resist Andros and Carlos and let them restrain him. Karone moved closer and let the gun down only when it was within arm's length of the vengeful widower. She uncocked the pistol and put it in her belt. Then she looked over to the scene of the crime. "Zedd!"

Zhane was kneeling beside Zedd, monitoring his pulse and trying in vain to stop the bleeding. Rita was kneeling very closely to Zedd's face, making no sound or movement despite the hysterical expression on her face. T.J., Ashley and Cassie all stood nearby, all visibly afflicted with a kind of awkward anxiety and uncertainty of course of action.

"Come on, stay with me!" Zhane pressed Zedd. The prognosis was quite poor, actually, but something told him Zedd would at least want to go out fighting.

He was right. Zedd's breaths came short and quick, even as each inhalation was visibly weaker than the previous. But he fought to get words out. "Rita," he groaned through his bloody teeth. "_Rita._"

"Zeddy!" Rita wailed, grabbing his hand and squeezing it. "I love you! All those horrible things I ever said—"

"_I know_," Zedd squeaked out, barely audibly. "I love you. Tell everyone… _everyone_… I'm sorry… for _everything_. I only wish…" He struggled to push through the last words, but it was no use.

At least the essential had been said.

One last exhalation came through Zedd's lips and his pupils disappeared into his head. His grip on Rita's hand went limp and his body relaxed down onto the ground.

"No-n-n-n-n-NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Rita screamed, pressing her head up against Zedd's. "ZEDD!"

* * *

><p>Theodore's resistance had weakened not because he had lost heart, but, rather the contrary, because, finally, the cement encasing around his heart had begun to erode as he watched the woman before him lose her husband at his hands—just the way he had lost his wife and children at <em>their<em> hands so many years ago that terrible day when a swarm of monsters had flanked Angel Grove. He had been away in Washington on a pre-NASADA briefing. Marie, Jacqueline, Clinton and Jan had been among those attempting to flee the city. One of the monsters had cut off a large traffic arterial road, just as the Van Bruins had driven past.

One swift stroke and Theodore Van Bruin had lost his whole family.

Just as Rita had now.

Theo had done what he had hoped to do for so long. He had succeeded. But only partially. And yet, those few moments of inaction, those moments during which his attempts to shoot Rita had been summarily aborted, had been long enough to let seep out the entirety of that vengeful energy that he had injected into the gaping void left by the brutal murder of his family. And suddenly he realized that, now, if he could have his gun back, he could never bring himself to kill Rita personally.

Suddenly he forgot all about his quest for vengeance, or even for justice. A state-sanctioned execution _would_ have been just.

Yet now, Theo could feel nothing of desire for either vengeance or justice. All he felt was that great gaping void in his heart, crushed in by the pressure of the cement casing upon the departure of noxious vengeful fumes that had held said heart erect. At last the casing imploded and his heart burst forth, alive once more yet severely damaged.

And then came the terrible, supplicatory rhetorical question:

_Oh, my God, what have I done? What have I done?_

Theo's heart was restored. Suddenly all the emotions burst forth at once: the love, the passion, the sorrow, the regret, the remorse, the anguish, the terror, the longing and desire for a place and for another to share it with—all the things that separate man from animal, all those dolorous but richly hued energies that give a meaning and a motivation to life.

Never a nonbeliever, Theodore Van Bruin was, all the same, as the Sicilians would say, become Christian _again_.

* * *

><p>"Rita!" cried Karone. All of a sudden a sharp pain ran through her heart. For a moment she saw once again the great Ecliptor: the one who had done so much evil alongside her…<p>

… and then taken the hit before she could, and paid the ultimate price for his consortium with the dark side.

Any lingering bitterness Karone might have felt against the adopted daughter of Master Vile now wilted away, replaced with a profound sense of kinship and identification. Karone swooped down beside her former colleague and threw her arms around her. Rita didn't move.

"Rita, let him go."

"Noooo!" wailed Rita, a bit lower than before. "No, no, no!"

Karone felt the tears well up in her own eyes. "Let him go!" she exclaimed softly, tugging slightly on Rita's body. Eventually the dethroned empress began to weaken her grip on her deceased husband's body and let Karone pull her into a tight embrace.

"He-he said he was sorry!" sobbed Rita. "For everything, for everyone! He wanted everyone to know…" She shook a bit. Karone could barely keep the two of them upright on their knees as they were. "Why him? Why _him_ and not me?"

_Why Ecliptor and not me?_ Karone thought. "I don't know," was all she could make out weakly.

* * *

><p>Theo was not the only penitent that day. Zedd, as he lay dying, had repented for all those he had slain in even colder blood than that in which he found himself now brought to his end.<p>

Rita was soon to join them. In her initial days of bereavement hers was only a budding repentance, but it was enough to propel her to supplicate the Rangers to find a man of good to say some sort of funeral incantation for her deceased husband.

Find they did. Father Gabriel Amori, childhood acquaintance of Ashley's mother in the Bay Area and the president at Ashley's baptism, took Zedd's dying words as conditional conversion and agreed to bury the erstwhile monarch in the rites of the Church. Austere and discreet was the funeral, yet elegant and haunting, and never more so than during those seconds of the lone choirboy chanting:

_Preces meæ non sunt dignæ,  
>sed tu bonus fac benígne,<br>ne perénni cremer igne._

(*Worthless are my prayers and sighing,  
>yet, good Lord, in grace complying,<br>rescue me from fires undying!)

It was in those moments, as she heard that propitious Latin prayer yet without understanding a word of it, that Rita's heart became the third good fruit watered on that terribly stormy day to come at last unto its own. At last she found it within her to, humbly and with dignity, repent of all the widows and orphans she had made through her relentless destruction.

And after so many months of idle fickleness, she had recovered as well a sense of noble duty.

So after the burial of her husband, she took Father Amori, Andros and Ashley aside. "I can't leave," she said. "There's too much for me to do here now."

"Like what?" Ashley looked puzzled.

Rita took a deep breath. "This 'private' funeral won't be enough. I have to tell everyone the truth. I have to tell _everyone_, for Zedd, what he told me. That he was sorry. And that I am, too. I have to tell _everyone_ who was wronged."

"But Rita, they'll… they'll have your head!" protested Andros.

Rita shook her head. "It has to be done. If I have to die to make things right, then so be it. It's been a long time in coming."

Father Amori, visibly perturbed, exchanged glances with Andros and Ashley before looking Rita in the eye. "Rita, it is indeed noble and _right_ to take responsibility for one's actions, but to… give oneself up in this way—we must first ask, _Cui bono?_ To whose benefit? Speaking in the objective, given your current condition, what good could possibly come from that? It would be one thing if you were a psychopath likely to victimize yet again, but—"

"What else do I have to do?" protested Rita.

"To die for no other reason than simply one's or another's _honor_, Rita, is—"

"But you can't understand!" Rita protested. "I'm _nothing_ without that horrid life, without that wicked Satanic magic! Now it's gone and I'm so happy for that! But what else _is_ there for me to do now?"

"But Rita," came a low, powerful feminine voice from behind them, "can you not envision, can you not trust and hold out hope that perhaps at some point in the future, perhaps nearer than you might expect, there will be much, much more for you than you could ever have envisaged?"

Eyes wide, Ashley turned around. There stood two brunette women in white robes, one of them veiled.

"Di-Dimitria?" Ashley exclaimed.

Rita's jaw went slack as she perceived the identity of Dimitria's companion. "Di-_Divatox_?"

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

_**Author's Note:** Really, truly sorry, Coin of Light and Darkness! But I had this story worked out a long time back and I knew exactly where I wanted to take it and how. I couldn't back down now! But it was indeed very, very sad and far more riveting to write than I thought it would be. Hope you can admire it even if it's not exactly what you would have liked to see…_


	11. The Vocations

_**The Ones I Love  
><strong>_Part X: The Vocations  
><strong>by MegaSilver<strong>

One last glimmer of the sun disappeared over the western horizon. Rita, Father Amori, Ashley and Andros stood to the east of Dimitra and Divatox and marvelled at the celestial incandescence accentuating the effect of the latter's flowing habit.

"Y-y-you survived, too?" exclaimed Rita.

Divatox nodded slowly and with uncharacteristically patient composure. "I've made the most incredible discovery in the last eight months." She turned slowly but deliberately to nod at her companion.

"Divatox is my sister," announced Dimitria. "We were twins, separated at birth. Divatox was kidnapped and sold on the black market to a bourgeois couple working in the private sector on one of Dark Specter's realms. As was Zedd. Originally he was Eltarian and a second cousin of Zordon's."

"And Karone," murmured Andros.

"Zordon spared us all because we had lost our childhoods," explained Divatox. "So long as we could have turned ourselves around with Dark Specter's influence broken, he couldn't think us a danger enough to merit the fate of the others."

Rita looked a bit confused. "But then… what about me?" She blinked a few times. "I'm… I'm not adopted! I look exactly like my mother!"

"Master Vile is not your father, though," advised Dimitria. "Your parents belonged to the nobility of the Dora system in the M-51 galaxy. Your mother never told you, but she lost her husband to an interplanetary extortion racket before you were born. Desperate and vengeful, she let her hatred overcome her and allied with Master Vile. In exchange for her help to conquer the Dora system, the last key to his domination of the galaxy, Master Vile married her and adopted you—and liquidated the entire petty criminal syndicate, as well as the participants' wives and children."

"So that's why my mother's gone," sighed Rita. "She _chose_ evil after she had learned better." Her eyes looked sad, but no tears came to them.

"I'm afraid so."

Divatox spoke next. "Rita," she said, "I've found my home. I've found my sister and our parents. They've helped me get through everything and it's all happened so fast and I still don't understand it all, and I know you don't either… and I know you don't have the same support I do. But… listen. You don't need it to do what you're meant to do. You can't just give yourself up now."

"What I'm meant to do?" Rita appeared distressed. "How am I supposed to know what I was meant to do?"

Dimitria reached into the pocket dangling from a cord around her waist and pulled out two flawless red amulets. "_This_ is what you are meant for," she asserted. "The war is over, but evil lives on. There will be—and already have been—more Rangers to fight more wars to stop the advance of the dark forces. With Zordon gone, someone must stand guard at the central conductor of the Morphing Grid on Earth. And there is no one alive in the universe, Rita, as experienced in surveillance or in the commanding of massive intergalactic energy forces as you."

Rita blinked rapidly. She felt as though she might faint. "I… _I_… I'm meant to take… _Zordon's_ place?"

Chuckling, Divatox reached over and put a hand to her old colleague's shoulder. "Nothing worked out quite the way we'd thought, huh?"

Dimitria held the amulets out to Rita. "There is a hidden island in the Pacific containing a strongly guarded fortress. Everything is prepared for you. Zordon wanted you and Zedd, specifically, to have the fortress." She fiddled with the clasps and join the amulets together into one. "Now there will only one of you. But you are more than capable yourself. When you don this amulet, then, you will be transported to your destination."

Rita's mouth hung open, her lower lip trembling. "I-I'm less than unworthy," she said.

Father Amori stepped in. "Rita, if… if I may, I know nothing about… intergalactic energy forces. But if we wait to have proven ourselves worthy of accepting a burden or an honor before accepting it, we'll never do anything we haven't done before. Think of repentance. Think of Zedd, of _you_. These gifts are _yours_, not because you're worthy, but because you _need_ them, and someone wants you to have them."

A pure stillness ensued, and for about two minutes nobody moved or said anything. There was no tension, no awkwardness: just a few moments of sheer awe.

Dimitria at last broke the silence. "Will you accept, Rita, for Zordon's sake?"

"I will," Rita whispered. "But I have something I need to do first."

"Take your time," Dimitria admonished. "The threat is no longer immediate. But should that ever change, know the forces of good everywhere in the universe are ready to come to your aid."

"Thank you."

"And thank you," Dimitria added, turning toward the priest and the two Power Rangers, "for helping her. Zordon would be most grateful himself. And do tell the other Rangers so."

"We will," Andros promised, a hopeful confidence in his voice—a hopeful confidence that perhaps these terrible rifts might yet be healed.

"And you…" Dimitria cast a curious glance on Father Amori. "Can it be possible that one possess such wise words as do you to speak to the deepest disquietudes of the human heart?"

Father Amori seemed more than a little surprised by that. "I, uh… well… it's my job!" He grinned a bit.

"How can this be?" exclaimed Dimitria. "A specialized vocation in the deepest psychology of moral division? How is it possible that after all my travels I have only just now come across such a thing in the entire universe? If I send an inquirer after me, will you agree to grant an interview to be circulated amongst our people?"

Father Amori felt ecstatic. "I'd be most delighted!"

* * *

><p>The next morning, outside the tiny chapel shrine to Our Lady of the Palms on the outskirts of Angel Grove and surrounded by the seven SpaceHonorary Rangers as well as the two Inquirians, Rita knelt as Father Amori wiped the last bit of Holy Water away from her forehead with a cotton swab.

"I'll go away with an… _indelible_ mark?" Rita asked.

Father Amori smiled and nodded. "Indelible. For all time."

"Means you're one of us," added Carlos, "whether you like it or not."

Rita stood up and shrugged. "I don't suppose I have much of a choice, do I?"

Father Amori cocked his head. "You _always_ have a choice."

"I choose to succeed Zordon, then," said Rita, "… if, that is, I fulfil everything I'm supposed to do."

Father Amori shook his head. "Not as you _should_, but as you are _able_."

Rita rolled her eyes. "Do you have a response for everything?"

"It's been suggested."

Rita took a step away from the crowd and pulled the amulet out from her pocket. She gazed into it and took a deep breath, then exhaled and looked upon the eight Terrans and two Inquirians watching her. "Thank you," she said. "All of you. I don't know what more to say."

"You don't have to say anything more," Andros assured her.

"I promise I'll watch over all of you like the good mother I never was," Rita added, chuckling.

With that, she fastened the clasp around her neck—and vanished.

"Now I'm afraid it's our turn to go," said Dimitria.

"It was great to see you again," said T.J.

"It was a pleasure to see you all, too."

"And Divatox!" exclaimed Cassie. "Seriously, you look great."

Divatox laughed right out loud. "Oh!" was all she could say.

Karone approached her old comrade-cum-rival, a soft smile on her lips. "You'll do great."

Divatox sighed and raised her eyebrows. "Let's hope."

"Hey…" Karone lowered her voice a bit. "They don't know yet—but Zhane and I are getting married on the second of September of next year. Would you… maybe be a witness?"

Divatox gasped. "_Me?_ Are you crazy?"

"No!" whispered Karone. "I really want you to be there!"

Divatox covered her mouth, but her eyes betrayed her dumbfounded delight. "I'll try; I really will!"

"September the second!"

"I'll remember!"

* * *

><p>Karone and Zhane had finally agreed to marry—and set the date—just the night before.<p>

Meanwhile, Andros and Ashley would be marrying on June 17. So far, however, only Ashley's parents knew—Andros had asked permission—, and they had planned to make the announcement the day after Christmas. So one can imagine the shock they were in for at what was about to ensue:

The Rangers chatted amongst themselves and Ashley with Father Amori as they trekked at a casual pace back to their cars. Zhane, however, dashed ahead to grab some glasses and two bottles of Moët & Chandon from the storage compartment of his Silver Cycle.

"Zhane, what are you doing?" asked Andros when the others reached the cars.

Karone dashed up to Zhane's side and grabbed his arm.

"Everyone!" Zhane called. When he had caught everyone's attention, he began twisting open the cap on one of the Champagne bottles. "I'd like to announce… that Karone and I are getting married!"

At that news, Andros literally lost consciousness—and would have hit the ground, had T.J., Carlos and Father Amori not caught him in time.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	12. The Stag Weekend

_**Warning:** The following chapter is a horrifying and true-to-life depiction of what happens when a group of menfolk get together without any womenfolk around to curb them. We're talking scatological mishaps, vomitoria, prison-rape innuendos, personal confessions, drunken lamentations… yep, all that. All of these incidents are closely based on detailed memories of bachelor party weekends that I have lived through, with only the slightest of adaptations. I understand that a cool majority of fanfic readers and writers are women. Well, I try to write for a broad audience, but a man can act chivalrous for only so long. YOU HAVE BEEN DULY WARNED._

_**The Ones I Love  
><strong>_Finale: The Stag Weekend  
><strong>by MegaSilver<strong>

"Ha _ha_!" laughed Zhane triumphantly as he tossed his bag on the floor in the foyer of the Central California villa. "Awesome! Rustic, warm, familial…" He admired the several alphabet-themed embroideries scattered, among other decorations on the walls. "I wonder if I could buy up this place with all the trappings!"

"Just _unfurnished_ this place would cost an arm and a leg!" remarked Adam. It was true. The house and the yard were spacious and the bedrooms facing the backyard overlooked the beach.

"Hey, let me stick to that pretty fantasy just a couple of days, all right?" Zhane muttered, his eyebrows lowered.

"This _is_ an awesome hideaway," Rocky agreed.

Indeed it was. It had that homely charm that only a female touch could have produced—indeed, it was owned and rented out by an established upper-middle-class L.A. family of six who themselves took advantage of the place's awesomeness every year for the full month of July.

This weekend, six other people would be staying at the villa: six men aged twenty through twenty-six, to heckle, honor and bond with one last time the one who had led four of them to victory in the combat for the universe. For just one week later, he would be forever safe from their wily designs in the arms of another of their teammates, one of the fairer sex.

"So, what time are the others getting in?" asked Adam.

"Uhh…" Zhane looked at his watch. Seven-thirty. "In theory around 10 o'clock. They went to a little tavern on the outskirts of town; Carlos is supposed to call here before they split, so I guess I'll hear from him in about a half-hour. Better make sure the phone works."

* * *

><p>At nine forty-five, Zhane, Adam and Rocky ducked into some woods just a few feet away from a nearby road. "Okay," said Zhane. "So, like we said: the guys'll drop Andros at the top of the hill and then drive off. He'll have to make his way down the path in the dark. As soon as he passes, Rocky, you give the signal: the coyote howl. Then we jump on him."<p>

"Are you sure he'll get out of the car?" Adam wondered.

"Oh, yeah. You heard those three sheets _way_ off to the wind when we got him on the phone earlier. And T.J. and Carlos said they'd stop by a corner store on the way and feed him another beer—you know, just to keep the alcohol levels up."

Rocky gulped. "This is kind of dangerous, isn't it?"

"Aww, come on!" Zhane scoffed. "It's not like Andros's the one driving. Okay: let's get into position!"

Another fourteen minutes passed as the three waited there among the trees, tensing up at every one of the few vehicles that passed—and turned out not to be the party they awaited. At last a hatchback stopped at the designated spot. A door opened, a man jumped out, and then suddenly the door slammed shut and the car split.

"_Dammit_!" Andros was heard to curse.

Andros _never_ swore. The three soon-to-be assailants choked down laughs, especially Zhane. They calmed themselves and waited for the moment for Rocky's signal.

Andros darted his head around angrily for a few seconds, then began to march downhill, very slowly. He passed the trio.

No signal.

When Andros was twelve yards down from them, Zhane leaned over to Rocky. "You didn't give the signal!" he whispered.

"He passed us?" exclaimed Rocky in a whisper.

"Yes!"

"I didn't see!"

"You crouched too low; you can't see the road from there!"

"Aww, crap!"

"Come on. Let's catch up to the others. I got an idea." Very gingerly, the three descended down the road and walked back up to the hill, turning right and advancing another fifty yards before finding T.J. and Carlos parked behind their car.

T.J. rolled down the window. "What's going on?"

"Rocky missed the signal!" Zhane muttered.

T.J. sighed. "Whoops."

"Look, why don't we take our car down the hill, and you go around and come uphill? We'll trap him in between!"

"Awesome idea!"

* * *

><p>Andros tried to tell himself to keep calm in the face of adversity. Not too hard, considering how relaxed he had become. He squinted his eyes and tried to work out, through the rum and Guinness and Jameson haze on his vision, where the trees were and which way to proceed down the road. At last he located the downhill.<p>

_Splendid!_

So, he bounded merrily downhill for about thirty seconds, when all of a sudden he found him face-to-face with a pair of headlights approaching slowly. He froze for a moment, somewhat in fear, then began to back up just a mite. He was too far gone in his head to notice that his path was being illuminated by another pair of lights from behind him, until he backed right into the car to which they belonged.

Andros gasped.

Then he saw three of the doors of the car swing open and three figures bound out and begin running towards him. Quickly he whirled around, only to find two figures emerging from the other car and doing the same. He tried to dart into the woods but it was too late: they were upon him.

"AAAAAAUGH!"

* * *

><p>A country ham was nearly ready in the crockpot when the lads returned to the house, but before setting the table Zhane thought to dial Ashley's cell phone. Karone answered.<p>

"Hey, babe!" exclaimed Zhane. "So what are you guys up to? I hear booing in the background!" He paused for a moment to listen.

"What's up?" Andros wanted to know.

Zhane chortled. "Ashley's drunk and singing Céline Dion's 'Dreaming of You' at a karaoke bar!"

Hearing that, Rocky and Carlos doubled over laughing.

"Hey, yeah?" Zhane said into the phone. "Okay, yeah, put Cassie on!… Hey! Yeah, I can hear you're having fun! What? No, no, just leave the wine shop closed… oh. Well… look, I'm happy to help Skull if he needs a job but… I'd rather be there personally if he's gonna be working, y'know?… Yeah… Okay, cool! Have a good time!"

* * *

><p>An infernal alarm jolted Zhane and Andros awake at 7:30 the next morning. "Rrrgh!" Zhane growled as he threw back the covers. This was just a little too early after the gin-soaked till-2:30 evening they had thrown the previous night.<p>

From the other bed, Andros rubbed his head. "Do we have to get up now? I don't think I'm done being drunk yet!"

_Oh, shoot_, Zhane thought. He started opening the windows in the bedroom. "See how bright the sun is? Hey… check out that beach view!" Zhane marched across the room, grabbed Andros's wrists and pulled him clean out of bed. "Come on, man! Just enough time for everyone to shower!"

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see!"

* * *

><p>An hour later, Andros was in the back seat of T.J.'s Volvo alongside Zhane, with Carlos in the front passenger seat, as they bumped along the road into the California interior.<p>

"Still drunk?" asked Zhane.

Andros shook his head, squinting. "No… just really hung over." He stuck his tongue out partway. "We didn't have any fusel strippers back at that bar."

"Oops!" exclaimed Zhane. "Wish I'd thought of that!"

Andros looked puzzled as they pulled off into a Shell station. "Hey… what are we stopping for? You've got plenty of gas!"

T.J. just grinned, looked at Carlos and bounced his eyebrows.

"What?" Andros wanted to know.

"We're not here to get gas," explained Zhane, reaching under the seat and pulling out a small suitcase as the car with Rocky and Adam pulled up alongside them.

* * *

><p>Inside the station, ten minutes later, Andros emerged from the restroom wearing a gawdy banana suit obviously plucked from the Halloween rack at the discount store.<p>

The other lads roared. "You look awesome!" Zhane cheered.

"Sweet stuff!" exclaimed Carlos.

Andros just shook his head as bystanders began to point and laugh. "I'm gonna get you all for this, I swear," he muttered as they exited the station.

* * *

><p>Another twelve minutes down the road, Rocky saw T.J. signal to the right and pull off the main road. Not sure what to make of this, he followed. "Why are people always getting off the main road?" he muttered.<p>

"Hey, something's going on!" remarked Adam. "Look, Andros is trying to stand up in the back seat or something." He rolled down the window and signalled to Carlos to do the same.

Before Adam could even ask for an explanation, Carlos peeped out and shouted back, "_He shat his pants!_"

Rocky heard that, and just about doubled over the steering wheel. "_What?_"

Adam was dumfounded. "Sick!"

"Man, I'm glad I'm in _this_ car!"

"No kidding!"

A few moments later, the crew finally came across a rather isolated area with some bushes around and pulled over. Andros, still wearing the banana suit, reached into the trunk and found a clean pair of shorts before ducking into the bushes.

"Why'd you mess yourself?" Rocky called as Andros was changing.

"I was trying to flatulate but since I'd had so much to drink last night it was all liquid!" Andros called back from the bushes.

Adam and Rocky looked at each other, each wearing a queased-out look on his face. "_Niiiiice_," Adam whispered.

* * *

><p>"Okay, so, where are we going?" Andros wanted to know once they were back on track. No one answered. "Guys?"<p>

Then he saw out the window the Municipal Airport sign and a light bulb went off. "Am I gonna go parachuting?"

"Yep!" confirmed Zhane.

Andros couldn't believe it. "Wha—whoa! Hoof!"

Parachuting was one thing he had never done without an Astro Morpher. He wasn't quite sure what to make of this.

* * *

><p>"Holy mackerel!" exclaimed Banana Man as his parachuting coach unstrapped him. He ran back towards his friends. "Guys, that was—"<p>

Before Andros could finish his sentence, he fell onto his knees and gave up the remnants of last night's dinner.

"_Shit_!" cried Zhane, running over to his buddy. "Man, it's okay!" he exclaimed, putting a hand to Andros's back. "You okay?"

"I think so," Andros breathed. "Just queasy."

"It's the alcohol. You're way worse off than I thought!" Zhane helped Andros to his feet and led him away from the terminal. "Come on… it's still only 11 AM. Let's go get some rest at the house!"

* * *

><p>Just five minutes down the road, Andros cried, "Pull over, pull over!" T.J. obliged, and Andros darted to the side of the road and threw up all over again.<p>

"Eeh!" exclaimed Zhane as he watched. "Nothing but gastric acid!"

Andros returned to the car, wiping his mouth. "That didn't help at all," he remarked as they started off.

"Hey!" exclaimed Carlos. "Teej, pull off at that McDonald's up ahead!" When they passed through the drive through, Carlos called across his friend: "One large order of fries!" He glanced back at Andros. "That way you'll have something in your stomach to throw up and you'll feel better."

Zhane raised an eyebrow. "I'm not too sure about that."

When they got the fries, T.J. tried to pass them back to Andros, but he was unconscious, his mouth was hanging open and his complexion was greyish. "Uh-oh."

"Yeah, I think we killed the stag," said Zhane jocularly, unable to contain the laughter.

"Better call Ashley when we get back!" Carlos joked.

* * *

><p>Rocky cringed as he sailed along the rope across the lake and saw his friends begin to pile up on the line, obviously hoping to drag it down and dip him backside-in-the-lake. He squiched himself up ever closer to the rope and hung on for dear life, arriving perfectly dry.<p>

"You didn't go in?" exclaimed Carlos when Rocky had landed. Rocky was the last one to complete the Tyrolean Crossing circuit.

Rocky shook his head.

Zhane tsked at T.J., whose backside was completely soaked. "Man, you need to go on a diet!"

The bunch had put Andros to bed for a couple of hours before cooking a sumptuous lunch and heading off around 3:00 PM to a Tyrolean adventure park. Now, having all six completed the course, they headed down the lakeside dock to pose for some pictures, the kind park owner obliging them.

"Okay, Andros!" called Zhane. "You jump into our arms!"

"Are you sure?" asked Andros, looking and sounding quite apprehensive.

"C'mon!" Carlos said, a tone of assurance in his voice.

"Okay!" With that, Andros hopped into his friends' arms and let them lift him up. Two seconds later, he felt T.J. plucking his shoes off. "What—?"

"Trust me!" exclaimed T.J. Of course Andros wouldn't, and with good reason. "Say cheese!"

Before the freshly discalced Red Ranger could react, the camera snapped. Almost immediately he felt his friends begin to charge for the water. "NO!" he exclaimed, clinging onto the nearest person—who just happened to be Zhane.

It was all in vain. Despite Andros's attempt to stay on dry dock, his friends managed to hurl him into the drink… and of course, he took Zhane with him.

The two leapt back onto the dock pretty fast, and Andros charged the group, hoping to drag at least one victim back in revenge. His efforts were in vain.

Five minutes later, everyone was readying to get back into the cars and get back to the house for the barbecue.

"Hey," remarked Rocky, "thanks, Zhane, for making the sacrifice! That was awesome!"

Zhane glared at Rocky and stuffed a lake-water-soaked sock in his mouth.

* * *

><p>Adam woke up at 9 AM on Sunday morning. He surveyed the landscape: the plates, the glasses, the bottles, the wet towels… the living room, kitchen and dining room looked completely decimated.<p>

_At least it's not my house!_

About an hour later, Adam was being his productive self, cleaning up in the kitchen when he saw T.J. come down the stairs, looking rather disgruntled. "Someone completely blocked the commode and I had to clean it up!" T.J. declared indignantly. "That was disgusting!"

Adam rolled his eyes. "Well, it wasn't me!"

"I didn't say it was you; I just said it was disgusting!"

* * *

><p>Rocky, Carlos and Andros had gone to Mass that morning. Andros had begun his catechism almost immediately after his engagement to Ashley and had taken urgent private lessons with Father Amori on account of the fast approaching wedding day, receiving Baptism, Communion and Confirmation on Easter Sunday 2000. But had it not been for Carlos waking them at 8:00 that morning, they would all have missed their Sunday obligation.<p>

At last they returned, at around 11 AM. By now the other three were all wide awake and relaxing on folding chairs in the yard. Brunch was ready: bacon, eggs, toast, jam, hash browns and… Mimosa from fresh orange juice and French Champagne.

And plenty of it all.

Then, to wash everything down, a round of beers during a friendly game of Kubb in the yard: Andros, Rocky and Carlos versus T.J., Adam and Zhane. The former team won going away.

As soon as it was over Zhane let out a nice long sigh. For a couple hours until dinner, there was nothing to do except sit on the lawn, talk, drink and maybe go down to the beachside. Great as it all was, running around all the time was perhaps just a bit much. He sat down near the boat shoes he had kicked off before playing Kubb and pulled them back on, taking his time.

But no sooner was Zhane re-shod than a mischievous Carlos barrelled into him, literally knocking him right out of his shoes again.

On a similarly mischievous whim, while Zhane fought off Carlos's grapple, Andros picked up one of the shoes and tossed it American football-style to Adam. Adam tossed the shoe similarly in Rocky's direction, but T.J. intercepted it. Rocky reached over and snatched the shoe. T.J. began to press into Rocky, and the latter could tell he'd be having to fight off a grapple. "Adam, catch!" he called, tossing Zhane's shoe. At the least, T.J. wouldn't have the game ball victory.

Rocky resisted for a minute and a half as T.J. attempted to dominate him, but ultimately found himself pinned, face-down, on the ground, T.J. riding very uncomfortably close to his backside.

"Hey, Teej!" grunted Rocky when he realized he couldn't move. "I think you've raped me pretty well good. Can you get off of me, please?"

T.J. obliged, but as soon as Rocky was back on his feet, grabbed the former Blue Ranger and literally threw him halfway across the yard.

"AAAAUGH!" cried Rocky as he sailed up and back down.

* * *

><p>A quick trip to the sea shore and two more rounds of beers later, the six friends settled back down in the lawn chairs closer to the house.<p>

"So, how was Mass for the Catholic?" T.J. taunted Andros lightheartedly.

"Hey!" exclaimed Zhane in a warning tone in defense of his best friend. "You know, I'm looking into the Roman Catholic Church myself for my own wedding!"

T.J. rolled his eyes. "Good luck!"

"You know," said Adam, "Tanya's pretty insistent about waiting, I mean, with her parents and all, but… I just don't understand this thing… I mean, my mom's Catholic, but… you guys, even when you're married, can't do _anything_ that's not productive?"

Zhane's eyes widened. "Wow. I didn't know that!"

Andros nodded. "It's true."

"Really?" exclaimed Carlos. "I mean, if you say so, but I was just a kid when I took Catechism; I didn't learn that!"

"No, it is," explained Andros. "You can begin any way you want, but you have to finish… inside."

Zhane looked puzzled. "See, on KO-35 they said you don't touch her till you're married—but I'd always thought that meant you could do anything after that!"

Andros widened his eyes. "What do you mean by 'anything'?"

"I mean… you know… well…" Zhane darted his eyes around. Everyone else's were fixed on him. "… as long as it's with the same woman, you can… well, any_where_."

"WHAAAAAAT?" Andros didn't look angry; in any event he'd had too much alcohol for that. He looked more distressed and horrified than anything else. "_Noooooooo_!" he moaned, and his expression suggested the sort of despair a wrongly-convicted man wears as he approaches the guillotine.

"Andros, calm down!" pleaded T.J.

"_You_ calm down!" Andros screeched. "He's gonna _sodomize_ my _sister_!"

"Andros," began Zhane, struggling to hold in the laughter, "look, normally people would—"

"NO!" Andros cried. "It's NOT NORMAL!"

At that moment, Zhane, seeing Andros's exaggerated desparation justaposed with his slur and his lack of attempt to physically malign his friend, realized that Andros was, deep down, resigned to giving up Karone. This wisecrack, though perhaps rooted in real ambivalence about the idea of his sister getting married period, was in good humor.

So Zhane stood up from the lawn chair and put a hand to Andros's shoulder. "I love you, man. I love Karone. I'll never hurt her. We'll make lots of nieces and nephews for you." He grinned mischievously and hugged his friend. "Make lots for us."

Zhane, of course, would have a bachelor party weekend of his own just a few months down the road, with this same crowd plus Markos and Zarto. Probably Adam would have one before long, and eventually Rocky, T.J. and Carlos would have theirs.

Yet there was something kind of magical about this first one among them. It wasn't just a sending off party for their friend Andros. It was a sort of rite of passage for them all. It was as though the weekend was the first, the greatest, the true bachelor party for _all_ those present: their final big step out of childhood and adolescence and into reckoning with the real world, the first time these boys really got to be around each other as _men_ on their own.

Someone has said that many people get old without growing up. For a boy, manhood is that awesome and admirable yet downright frightening achievement that lies just ahead. Every boy wants the strength, the confidence and the prestige that come with it. Not every boy has the courage to take the requisite initiative, make the requisite sacrifices and assume the requisite self-restraint to do so.

But, much as the stag of this weekend had observed nearly two years ago about leaving KO-35 permanently, it was always more possible to face one's destination if one did not have to do so alone.

**THE END**


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